Shoot Out the Lights

Richard & Linda Thompson, Linda Thompson, Richard Thompson | Format: Audio Cassette

Product Details

• Audio Cassette (July 1, 1991)
• Label: Hannibal
• ASIN: B000000613
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (54 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #843,821 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Don't Renege on Our Love

2. Walking on a Wire

3. Man in Need

4. Just the Motion

5. Shoot Out the Lights

6. Back Street Slide

7. Did She Jump or Was She Pushed?

8. Wall of Death

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Thompson collection starts here, August 30, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Shoot Out the Lights (Audio CD)

"Shoot Out the Lights" is one of the finest, most organically perfect albums ever recorded, and the place to start for Richard and Linda Thompson novices, both for its devastating emotional impact and its rock orientation, which makes it their most musically accessible album. Not to mention that Richard's guitar playing has never been more ferocious or expressive as it is here, especially on the epic title track. As John Mellencamp once said about this album, RT's lead guitar adds another voice that expresses almost as much as the voices singing the words.

What gets overlooked in the conventional wisdom of this album being a chronicle of gloom and doom is that there's also a lullabye of great peacefulness in the middle ("Just The Motion") and an affirmation of living life to the upmost at the end ("Wall of Death"). Of course, the darkness and pain is there aplenty in "Walking On A Wire," "Don't Renege on Our Love," and "Did She Jump Or Was She Pushed?" but the point is, "Shoot Out the Lights" is a balanced, complete whole. It's about life, period, as all great art is.

As much fine work as Richard (though sadly, not the retired Linda) has done since this 1982 album, he's never topped this one, and the only albums in his catalog that rival it are "I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight," "Pour Down Like Silver," and "Hand of Kindness." It's a must-own.

49 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It Don't Come Easy, But It Don't Get No Better, February 8, 2000

By 

Michael Weber "fairportfan" (Atlanta) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Shoot Out the Lights (Audio CD)

This is a dark, brooding and, above all, wonderfully, brilliantly difficult album.

Richard Thompson's songs are often scarifying; but even at their most dark and doom-laden, there's something purifying and uplifting about them as well.

Add his incredible guitar skills -- when he plays live acoustic, one would not be surprised to find that he has two extra hands hidden away somewhere -- and his own harrowed/harrowing vocals and Linda's beautiful floating voice and you have one hell of an album.

But, as i said, it's a difficult album -- i owned this album for almost a year before i stopped listening to it and started *hearing* it.

"Did She Jump?" is terrifying.

"Walking on a Wire" is full of the pain of *knowing* that your relationship is going bad, *knowing* that there's *nothing* you can do about it... and still hoping, dreaming futilely otherwise.

"Don't Renege on Our Love" rings with the knowledge that no matter how much you plead, he/she is still going to let it all go.

And "Wall of Death" -- while many see it as a song of hope and affirmation, of living life to the fullest -- comes across, in my hearing, as almost a case-study in depression.

All sounds pretty much like an album you'd go a long way to avoid, doesn't it? But it is, somehow, overall a defiance of that black fog, an affirmation of life, a celebration of hope against hope and fiercely loving even when love may be doomed...

If you're ready to step beyond simple boy/girl, moon/June/croon stuff and pop treacle; if you want some vitamins and some roughage in your musical diet, well, then...

This Is The Stuff.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best of British Folk-Rock, February 21, 2000

By 

dev1 (Baltimore) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Shoot Out the Lights (Audio CD)

On the cover we see Richard alone in the corner of the room with a photograph of his x-love and x-wife on the wall. He's saddened, angry, lonely and befuddled - all the emotions of a long musical collaboration and love affair gone wrong. The power and emotion of the release are enhanced by the fact the Linda is coequal in the recording studio. Their relationship is like "Walking On A Wire" - both are precariously balanced and ill prepared to fall. Richard is THE premiere British Folk-Rock guitarist: his style is powerful, unique and unforgettable. The guitar solos on both "Shoot Out The Lights" and "Walking On A Wire" will take your breath away. If Sandy Denny is the mother of British Folk singers, them Linda must be her soul sister - her voice is mysterious and sultry. "Wall Of Death" is a suitable finale - this is an anthem of survival. "Shoot Out The Lights" is NOT "Puff The Magic Dragon" cotton candy folk music. If you haven't been fortunate enough to have been introduced to British Folk Rock, start here with Richard and Linda.