I’d give you the rundown on Edith Frost, but really there’s no way I could do it better than this Chicago Reader column. Strangely enough, I’d been wondering about when her next album was coming out, and the Reader column leads with the reason why we haven’t seen any new material since 2001. Guess I’m not the only one waiting.

Demos didn’t make it to the 2004 review for two reasons. The first is it’s all old stuff, and early versions of already-released material to boot. The real reason, of course, is I forgot; going through the stack of CDs I’d bought doesn’t help when you’ve also got downloaded albums. Which is one of the great things about Demos�Frost, in her infinite wisdom, has released the album as a free download via Comforty Stand Recordings. This demo version of “Walk On The Fire” is one of the choice cuts.

I happen to be familiar with the buzzy, rougher final version of “Walk On The Fire,” but in most cases I’m hearing these songs for the first time, as demos rather than album versions. I imagine a lot of people will be in the same boat, hearing Edith Frost for the first time through these early versions. Some will probably be disappointed at first to find that the serene, dreamy atmosphere of Demos doesn’t quite carry over to the studio albums. But the albums have many charms of their own, and it won’t take long for people to find them. Demos, then, manages the feat of complimenting the studio albums while standing on its own as a cohesive work. Definitely worth the download.