This year of 2025 marks 50 since the untimely passing of Pete Ham, co-founder and lead songwriter for power pop legends Badfinger. At the end of April, Yesterday & Today Music released yet another collection of Pete Ham demos. The album, simply entitled Acoustic, is a themed collection of demos that showcase Ham’s talents as a songwriter.
Even in his short 27 years of life, Pete Ham recorded a lot of music. Along with his music with Badfinger, he left many demo recordings behind. Since 1997, Ham’s demos have been receiving releases sporadically. Acoustic is the sixth to be released (if 2023’s Misunderstanding is being counted) and the first to be released since 2023/24’s Gwent Gardens. The story goes that when coming up with the next collection of Pete Ham demos, Badfinger Library site manager and historian Tom Brennan noticed that most of the material was performed by Pete on acoustic guitar. Inspired by the 2004 archival John Lennon release Acoustic, this laid out what would become the next posthumous Pete Ham release.
As with the other posthumous releases from Ham, Acoustic is hard to listen to as a regular album: a majority of the songs aren’t completed and the sound quality is very primal. Even then, there’s some things worth mentioning about Acoustic. Of the album’s staggering 30 tracks, some listeners might recognize a few of these songs for ending up on Badfinger albums. This includes songs such as “Midnight Sun,” “I Can’t Take It” and “We’re For The Dark.” All of them sound good and while fragile, there’s a charm to hearing them played in their early stages. There is a fourth, “I Can’t Forget,” which ended up becoming the Badfinger classic “Perfection.” Of these early takes of the Badfinger songs, this might stand out the most due to the different set of lyrics.
Other songs on here have appeared on other posthumous releases. Song such as “One Lonely Day,” “Can You Deny” and “Army Man” are all alternate versions of those songs. While some might not be familiar with these songs compared to the Badfinger songs, listeners can hear to these as news songs in a way. If one were were looking for “new” songs, look no further than “Let’s Get Together” and “Suspicious.” While not completed songs, these sound like they had the potential to become great fully fledged songs. There are also a few instrumental tunes on here such as “Pete’s Postcard” and “Pete’s Idea.” These songs might be seen as filler but listen carefully to these songs: not only was Ham a talented songwriter but he was a fine guitar player.
If Acoustic had any downsides, it would be the amount of content on here. With 30 songs to offer in about an hour, it’s quite a lot for anyone to take in. As a result, the songs might begin to sound the same. Even then, the album certainly has a vibe considering it’s only acoustic tunes. It does have an indie rock or DIY feel to it, which is something to appreciate about this release. The sound restoration and mastering of the music, coming from Kevin McElligott, is also top notch.
As a whole, Acoustic is a fine collection of tunes from Pete Ham. While it is on the long side and gets repetitive in parts, there was clearly an effort put into this collection. As a tribute release for the 50th anniversary of Pete’s passing, Acoustic does the man’s music justice.
Rating: 7/10
I'm a writer/journalist with a passion for music and pop culture. Having graduated from King's College in Wilkes-Barre, PA in 2014, I've been looking for a platform in which I can share my passions. Since 2009, I've been posting to my own blog- The Walrus' Music Blog- via Blogger. I'm also the author of two self-published books, "The Camp: Stories from the Summer" and "The College: Stories from King's." Together, the two books cover the story of my life from 2004 to 2014. I've been lucky enough to interview several of my favorite musicians over the years and go to concerts from time to time. I'm also very devoted to the CBS reality TV show Survivor, which I started watching in 2002 when its fourth season started. I currently live in New Jersey.