The 1982 Listening Post - Richard & Linda Thompson - Shoot Out the Lights

 Reviewed by Julia Talbot

Released: March 15 1982 Richard & Linda Thompson Shoot Out The Lights Genre: Rock In Touch With Its Folk Leanings Allen’s Rating: 5 out of 5 Julia’s Rating: 4.5 out 5 Highlights: Walking On A Wire The Wall Of Death The lyrics of the songs are all thought-provoking and since the album is comprised of only eight songs, it works well viewed as one body of work. “Walking on a Wire” is particularly resonant in a universal way about being or feeling anxious. “Wall of Death” is a great final song to the album, since it extols exhilaration and gives the listener a sense of movement and a brighter future. While the album “Shoot Out the Lights” was released in 1982, it did not find its way into my fancy five-disc CD player until 1994 where it stayed there continuously until 1999. During that time, I got married and had a baby, bought a house and got pregnant with another baby. Mainstream criticism regards the album as one of the better break-up records (after Fleetwood Mac’s Rumors album and the Beatles’ Let It Be or Abbey Road). That being said, more alternative critical voices and Thompson himself dispute that perhaps it is not entirely about the demise of Richard and Linda Thompson’s marriage, although this album’s production did coincide with the end of their marriage, when Linda was pregnant with their third child. While many of the songs reference the kind of loneliness and isolation that many experience sitting in a relationship not having its best year, most of the lyrics are more globally written, tapping into those feelings and desires rather than going full bore on the break-up theme. To me, “Shoot Out the Lights” was the soundtrack to a certain sort of ultimate domesticity (never mind that I had absolutely no idea what I was doing with all these oh-so-grown-up trappings) that I very much wanted but was having a hard time adjusting to/making work. Hindsight being 20/20, a lot of these songs really resonated with the out-of-my-element, out-of-sorts, over-my-head, isolated lens of a young married suddenly saddled with two babies, a mortgage, and a lot of sleep deprivation, but who was very much committed to making it all work, come hell or high water. Through that lens, “Don’t Renege on Our Love” was more about the chaos that had overtaken a formerly quiet and peaceful life, as much it was a plea for us both to stick around even when the going was exhausted and overwhelmed. “Walking on a Wire,” summarized how underwater I felt about pretty much every aspect of my life at the time. “It’s too long to myself” perfectly sums up the sentiments of someone not allowed to go to the bathroom by themselves for three or four years. “Shoot Out the Lights” spoke of the distance two babies and a mortgage can put between two people who just a year or two before had nothing but time for each other. The lyrics to “It’s Just the Motion” both summarized the day-to-day and gave me hope that my struggle was worth bearing out — that my complete bewilderment at getting what I thought and did want would eventually settle down into something more manageable. My personal struggles and the lyric’s ability to personify them, speaks to the strength of the songwriting overall. Unlike the Thompsons, I didn’t get divorced, things did settle down and I did adjust and reconnect to not only my husband but to the larger world. It just took a minute. However, much of the analysis I found about this album, sells its lyrics short, settling for the low hanging fruit of marital dissolution and ignoring the universality of the lyrics and what they have to say about frustration, loneliness and feeling disconnected, or vibrantly alive. The noted music critic Robert Christgau noted in his review that “these are powerfully double-edged metaphors for the marriage struggle”, which seems spot on, but then interprets “Did She Jump or Was She Pushed” as a response song which Thompson himself has noted was more a global story of women’s frustration and depression about having their ambitions thwarted. Spoiler alert – since the lyrics reference “fingerprints right around her throat”, I think the bigger problem is whether or not she was dead before she fell. Christgau also interprets the bearded lady mentioned in one lyric of “Wall of Death” as a foreshadowing, despite this being the last song of the album, with the rest of the lyrics really being more a list of things that are exhilarating and how electric it feels to be completely and absolutely alive. While it could be interpreted as the relief felt from getting out of a marriage that was no longer working, it really could just be about riding an amusement park ride. Sometimes a banana is just a banana.

The 1986 Listening Post - Richard Thompson - Daring Adventures

Richard Thompson - Daring Adventures

#255/1380

June 1986

Richard Thompson

Daring Adventures

Genre: Rock

4.5 out of 5

Highlights:

A Bone Through Her Nose

Valerie

Dead Man’s Handle

Cash Down, Never Never

Confession. I owned a copy of Henry the Human Fly and never listened to it. Not once. So, that’s about $13 I owe myself. 

Richard writes songs. I don’t think he’s trying to push any envelopes, just trying to write songs that amuse him and, hopefully, the audience finds as interesting as he does. 

When he does it well, I do, when he doesn’t, well, I guess there’s always more to come. 

Mitchell Froom is on this thing. 

And he and Richard occasionally play the Theremin. (“Cash Down, Never Never”)

I like that weirdo instrument. Unfortunately, a few of these tracks are from live cuts and that’s not really a good representation of the album, just the songs, but I’ll take it. 

I like this album. A lot of it sounds like other stuff by him but I don’t fault artists for that too often. Once you have an idiom it’s hard to break away. See: Mountain Goats. I think there might be a day when I need to go back and listen to everything in Richard’s catalog. He very rarely disappoints. 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Svgo1NW1vaU&list=PLBJ7ztNazTVDtBYYCAoJUXD6RDKZP4FmU

The 1985 Listening Post - Richard Thompson - Across a Crowded Room

Richard Thompson - Across a Crowded Room

#134

April 1985

Richard Thompson

Across a Crowded Room

Genre: Folk Rock

4.25 out of 5

Highlights:

When the Spell is Broken

Fire in the Engine Room

Little Blue Number

When you marry good songwriting with solid musicianship you get this record. 

I have nothing to add here. This is just fine Thompson. The playing is great and the songs are more than just “folk”, actually. He seems to be playing and writing with a ton of joy.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/across-a-crowded-room/1295998295

The 1983 Listening Post - Richard Thompson - Hand of Kindness

Richard Thompson - Hand of Kindness

June 1983

Richard Thompson
Hand of Kindness
3.75 out of 5

Highlights:
Tear Stained Letter

When I think of Richard Thompson I often picture Ted Leo at the same time. Perhaps it’s because Thompson notoriously played and extolled the craftsmanship of “Oops, I did it again” and Leo did an amazing acoustic version of “Since You’ve Been Gone”. They both have a deep appreciation for pop songs and a striking inability to write one.
Thompson’s songs are all fine and dandy here. His voice is as grating as ever.