What happens when you find God and drop
off the face of the Earth for a little while to get your bearings
straight, to revel in the joy of newfound glory for the most exalted?
If you are Richard and Linda Thompson
you come back with a new album for the first time in near three years
and talk all about it, then after that fails you come back with
another new album a scant year later and if all goes according to
plan some asshole in the New Mexican desert will write a review about
said album THIRTY-FIVE years later, as though it means anything to
anyone.
Well, it does mean something to
someone—me, at least—that these two albums, At First Light and
Sunny Vista are way
better than they are given credit for.
Let me
get this straight with you ALL SIX Richard and Linda Thompson albums
are necessary. I will say that again: ALL SIX Richard and Linda
Thompson albums are necessary. It is true that the first and last of
their albums I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight and
Shoot Out the Lights are
the best of the six, but it's not like they are so much better that
the others appear to have extra heads or something or that they are covered in slimy musical warts.
When I
first heard At First Light I
was expecting a super cheesy late seventies disco album or some shit
like that, but instead I heard another very good bordering on great
Richard and Linda record with a nice Eastern music flare that was
rather unexpected and quite enjoyable. On Sunnyvista I
heard not one trace of debacle, even the songs that are supposedly so
horribly “commercial” more or less sound like a country fried
version of X (the band) without that band having actually released an
album at the time, it's kinda weird how it would sound like much
later X, and I swear the whole sound of Timbuck 3 came straight from
the song “Civilisation” but I'm not sure if that's actually a
good thing to point out.
Both
of these albums are filled with great songs, topnotch performances by
all musicians involved and a whole lot of wonderful vocal singin' by
the Thompsons and you can't tell at this point how truly hateful the
wife and hubby were toward each other, so the illusion of some divine
perfect love they shared radiates from the grooves and lets us feel
comforted in the glow of their love, not only of each other, but of
their own sweet Sufi-c version of Allah which seems to be all about
love and joy and human goodness etc...along with a good swath of
social criticism and somewhat sardonic satire. Of course after
Sunnyvista we would
get Shoot Out the Lights which
really, to my ears and heart, seems to come from a much darker place
where a hubby and dear wifey might really want to shoot each other
and be damned if Allah gives a fuck or not. And of course it is a
better album, but really, what does one expect?
So
many artists have released albums about their spiritual path and
faith and whatnot, and almost always those albums are universally
panned, hated on, scolded and chided for containing an aspect of the
creator's (of the album, not “God”) trip that might not sit well
with others who are on other trips. It is true that often when an
artist goes off on a tangent writing about their religious beliefs
and being all preachy it gets really annoying (I would say “Look at
Saved by Bob Dylan,
but I like that one, and I'm sure I'll review it later) but getting
all preachy and “into” your spiritual trip is an absolutely
fundamental aspect of human nature even though every human doesn't do
it. I don't particularly mind much of anything for it's content,
I've learned over the years to get the fuck over what people are
yammering on about and really listen, but I'm sure to some it is much
harder. That's okay, we all gotta walk our own roads, and personally
I choose to have these two Richard and Linda Thompson albums with me
on the journey and not as completest manure to say “I've listened
to/have these” but because I do enjoy both of the albums thoroughly
and actually find them both more enjoyable than the Thompsons' somewhat
notoriously fun second album Hokey Pokey
and if I really were to be put to the wall over it I'd probably
prefer both to Pour Down Like Silver,
which is, of course, heresy.
I didn't intend originally to write about both of these albums at one time. I was only going to write about Sunnyvista but it just sort of came out this way. The reason why I chose Sunnyvista to be the first album I wrote about on this here blog is a very important aspect to the purpose of the blog and why I'm doing this.
A few
nights ago a friend and I were listening to a few
“secondary” and even some “tertiary” releases by bands and
artists we really dig. Over the course of a couple days it dawned on
me how many of these albums have really negative reviews on AllMusic,
which is, of course, the ultimate authority on music in these modern
times thanks to their dominating internet presence and starred links on Wikipedia. To read about these albums on AllMusic is to think that
there are incredible flaws on both of them. Over the years,
according to the Wiki, even Richard himself has said that during this
time he was being incredibly slouchy, lazy, not writing as tight and
good as he should have etc...Well, on the Wiki for Sunnyvista
the writer calls it “a
Curate's Egg of an album,” and having never heard the phrase I
looked it up and lo and behold there is the moment when I say to dear
compatriots “That would be a great title for a music blog,
especially if you only wrote reviews on things that are considered
“bad” but really aren't if you pay attention!” and now, here we are.
For
some strange reason the music field has leveled in a peculiar way
that allows almost everyone to have a “classic” album or two
while disregarding some of the more valiant efforts, the failed
masterpieces and the like. I mean seriously, who is running out to
buy and listen to Emotional Rescue and
Empire Burlesque with
the same uncontrollable glee they have for Sticky Fingers
and Blonde on Blonde?
Well, there may be a few, but so many artists have been really
pigeonholed for their “classics” and the bigger picture is oft
ignored by the public at large. I, donning a super hero costume
you'll never see, have decided to maybe put a stop to this insanity,
or inanity, and do this stupid crap. Hey, someone has to, (and I'm
sure many have), but come on...these things aren't nearly as crappy
as everyone likes to pretend.
On the
final note of this review I'd like to say “Thank you,” to Richard
and Linda Thompson for getting married and recording their reality in
the form of great and wonderful music for all us to listen to for
years to come. You can't beat it with a stick really and though
these two albums are great, if you really want to 'get into' them I do
suggest the first and last albums of their career and marriage, (I'm not denying that "classic" albums are usually the place to start).
Maybe marriage and album making should be separated for happiness' sake, but for
art nothing makes anything more beautiful than an ugly divorce (See Rumours and Papas and Mamas)...until later!
Shag
