The Thompsons and Friends Give Us the Most Album of the Decade

The Thompsons and capist entertainment, and it probablyyin keeps the music moving just briskly won't be to everyone's taste, but if thereenough to avoid sentimentalizingit, Friends Give Us the Most has been a more immediately grippingwhile allowing every one of Ravel's pop album released since the dawn ofmagical touches to make its full effect Immediately Gripping Pop the decade, I haven't heard it. in context. One feels the aural deli- Album of the Decade -Steve Simelsciousness comes from the very heart of the music, not merely its coating, and RICHARD AND LINDA THOMPSON:the marvelously transparent sound is ETs get the prejudices right up front: Shoot Out the Lights. Richard and Lindanearly as important a contributor to the for me Richard and Linda Thomp- Thompson (guitar and vocals); Simon Nicol (guitar);Pete Zorn, Dave Pegg (bass);enchanting effect as the superb per- son's new Hannibal album, "Shoot Out formance itself. This is not a matter of the Lights," is the kind of record that Dave Mattacks (drums); other musicians. Don't Renege on Our Love; Walking on adecibels on display, but of mostly deli- makes most of those that cross my re- cate sounds and exquisite colors per- viewer's desk seem like the work of ar- Wire; Man in Need; Just the Motion; Shoot Out the Lights; Back Street Slide; Did She ceived in the clear, honest light of un- tistic pygmies. In terms of intensity ofJump or Was She Pushed?: Wall of Death. contrived, beautifully balanced sound feeling, craftsmanship, and originality HANNIBALHNBL 1303 $8.98. engineering. of vision, the only record I've heard this The companion work is Saint -Sans' year that's in the same league is Lou Carnival of the Animals, anditis Reed's magnificent "The Blue Mask." brought off with similar distinction. Unfortunately, the Thompsons' album The bracketing of these two titles gave will probably fare even more poorly me a moment of apprehensiveness, be- than that one did in the marketplace. ItPrevin and the Pittsburgh: cause the only similar pairing I could probably won't even sell well enough to recall was the old Columbia disc on become somebody's tax write-off (when Shimmering Ravel and which Andre Kostelanetz did the short- was the last time you heard a hit album er Mother Goose Suite and a Carnival that featured the word "renege" in one Appealing Saint-Saens of the Animals in which Noel Coward of its song titles?). And that is why 1 recited Ogden Nash's more -tiresome- refuse to feel embarrassed about gush- In Digital Sound than -clever verses. (That was in fact ing over Richard and Linda publicly for the premier recording of the Nash what seems like the umpteenth time. verses; it is still circulating on Odyssey The facts of the matter are these: THE Pittsburgh Symphony Orches- Y 32359, with a different discmate.) Richard is one of the most interesting tra, under such illustrious conduc- Happily, Previn had better judgment rock guitarists now working (he has in- tors as Fritz Reiner, the late Williamthan to clutter up a witty and original finitely more chops than either Neil Steinberg, and now Andre Previn, haswork with gratuitous verbiage, and he Young or Tom Verlaine, by the way).always made a strong impression in its makes the most of the not inconsider- He is also a songwriter who, with his recordings, butIcan't remember itsable musical substance in the Carnival. timeless -sounding amalgam of antiqueever having sounded so downright lus- In fact, while Boulez, Martinon, Mon- English balladry, American mountaincious-and so aptly so-as it does in teux, and, especially, Skrowaczewski music, early rock-and-roll, and his ownPrevin's new Philips digital recording ofall do nobly by Mother Goose in their considerable demons, should be recog- Ravel'sMother Goose (Ma Mirerecordings (in each case without the nized as one of the best alive. And final- P. )t e`It k the full ballet version that is " aO ly, his wife Linda is the most moving zred he, ,., not just the orchestrate° folk -oriented vocalist out of Englandpiano suite, and its shimmering opu-recorded performance of the Carnival since the late Sandy Denny. lence is a joy from first note to last. Pre- of the Animals, either in Saint-Saens' "Shoot OuttheLights"isthe Thompsons' most consistently satisfy- ing album since the near legendary "I LINDA AND RICHARD THOMPSON:intensity, originality, and craftsmanship Want to See the Bright Lights To- night." It rocks harder (the title track could pass for heavy metal if Richard's soloing weren't so idiosyncratic), but it has the same Apollonian grace, it is just as easily elegant, rhythmically insin- uating, and lyrically incisive. Did She Jump or Was She Pushed? may be the best suicide song anybody has ever written, and ditto for Back Street Slide on the topic of adultery. The backing musicians, mostly long- time colleagues from Richard's tenure in Fairport Convention, are uniformly splendid, and they provide accompani- ment that is both spare and forceful. Producer JoeBoyd, who hasalso worked with Richard since the old days, has framed the whole thing with a most becoming aural sheen that never once lapses into slickness. "Shoot Out the Lights" isn't exactly what I'd call es- 66.

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