:: Leo Sayer - Don’t Wait Until Tomorrow

Leo Sayer

Have record labels heard the old saying, ‘he that protesteth too much’? Alarm bells started ringing when a record label stated saying ‘Don’t Wait Until Tomorrow’ isn’t a Leo Sayer best of – it’s just a collection of his milestone songs to mark his 60th birthday. All I can say is that perhaps they should have done a best-of because hearing Leo Sayer perform his hits the way a C-Class band on cruise ship would cover them certainly does nothing if his great career. It’s sad but true on ‘Don’t Wait Until Tomorrow’ it sounds like Sayer is doing cabaret. I’m sure the strings and smoothness of ‘The Show Must Go On’ was supposed to sound classy but instead it sounds cheesy, while the song ‘One Man Band’ just sounds plain wrong in cabaret style. And it keeps getting worse; Sayer’s big hit ‘You Make Me Feel Like Dancing’ doesn’t work at all. Sayer is singing about dancing but the way the song is performed sounds tame an held back. ‘When I Need You’ also doesn’t work in this style. The normally good love song simply becomes bad lounge music here. Some songs do work in this style though. The two heartbreak classics, ‘Raining In My Heart’ and ‘Orchard Road’ work well performed in a blues style while the bass heavy rendition of ‘Giving It All Away’ is only saved by Sayer’s melody. Sayer does an acoustic pop-orientated version of ‘Thunder In My Heart’ which works well and begs the question why the early songs weren’t done in this style rather than the awful lounge music way they were. Even the jazz versions of ‘Long Tall Glasses’ and ‘Don’t Wait Until Tomorrow’ sound great and possible make ‘Don’t Wait Until Tomorrow’ an average album rather than an awful one. ‘Don’t Wait Until Tomorrow’ does nothing to celebrate Leo Sayer’s career. Instead it makes him sound like a sad Barry Manilow wannabe and we all know that he deserves better than that.