Though Leo Sayer didn't write or co-write one of his two Pop chart-toppers - the Carole Bayer Sager/Albert Hammond composition "When I Need You" - his songwriter bona fides are nonetheless impressive including "The Show Must Go On," "One Man Band," "Long Tall Glasses (I Can Dance)" (all co-authored with David Courtney), "How Much Love" (with Barry Mann), and "You Make Me Feel Like Dancing" (with Vini Poncia and an uncredited Ray Parker, Jr.).  Between 1990 and 2005, he didn't release any new studio albums...but that doesn't mean he wasn't writing and recording.  He's just unveiled 1992 on the Edsel label, premiering eight previously unreleased songs - most cut in that year, though the credits indicate that some recording continued through 1994.

Though these songs were recorded as demos, Sayer opted to release them in their original form rather than re-record them.  It's not hard to see why; his vocals are strong and resonant.  Sayer also played and programmed most of the instrumentation on 1992, augmented by the work of musicians Les Davidson (guitars), Steve Jackson (drums and drum programming), and Jeremy Meek and John Mackenzie (bass).  The heavily synthesized production has aged less well than the vocals, but the well-crafted songs remain potent and accessible.  There's a darkness around the edges of many songs including "Was I Blue?," the epic "Wonderworld," and "Heaven," the latter of which implores, "We must turn around while there's still time/While the boat still steers, get it back on line..."  Sayer is seemingly speaking to both a relationship and the world at large in numerous songs here, his anger boiling to the surface on "Start a Fire."  He's considerably more tender on the ruminative, half-spoken, half-sung "Joanna" and updates his '70s pop style on "Rainbow's End" and the closing "On Stage," which nicely sums up Sayer's ethos ("All that glitters ain't gold/No matter what you've been told/Life ain't all rock and roll/Be true to your heart and soul/On stage").  (Some of the song's vocals are also redolent of Elton John, an artist to whom Sayer was compared decades earlier.)  1992 isn't revelatory, but it's a fine gift from a beloved artist to his longtime fans; Edsel has nicely packaged it in deluxe 7-inch style.​