Customer Reviews

Shoot Out the Lights

5 star:		(42)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

"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.

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.

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.

Non-mainstream rock critics love to put this album in their all-time top 10 lists because a) it's a masterpiece and b) most people have never heard of it. The legend goes something like this: Richard and Linda Thompson, a married couple, are headed for divorce and can only speak to each other through song. So this album is the chronicle of their wrenching break-up. Maybe, but the divorce-in-a-songbox angle is overplayed. Numbers like "Wall of Death," "Did She Jump" and "Backstreet Slide" seem quite off-topic. But so what. Here we have one of folk rock's great works, an album that rewards the listener with every listening. The highlight for me is "Walking on a Wire." Her voice, his guitar = chills. And, yes, it's one of the most heartbreaking songs ever written for adults about a break-up. Richard gets his licks in as a singer on other songs ("Man in Need"). Some of the reviewers here bemoan the fact that Richard Thompson never made a better album. True, but he has come up with quite a few excellent ones. "Shoot Out the Lights" is just an impossible act to follow.

There are a very select few albums that stand as great works of art. Not simply some good music mixed with some inspired moments, but albums where every note is necessary, every song is a classic and every performance ranks as a career best. While Richard Thompson, with and without former wife Linda, has produced an amazing body of work, Shoot Out the Lights rises from the pack as a must-have for any serious music fan.

Guitar fans take note. Thompson may be the finest player alive, a claim I'm willing to argue only with those who've seen the man perform live. He can turn in a blistering solo with the best of them, but unlike many Rawk gods, he also knows when subtlety will work better than pyrotechnics. He's also inventive enough to hit notes you'd never expect would work, but somehow manage to illuminate and improve any song. On the title song, for instance, he turns in an inspired, left-of center solo that will leave any fan of the guitar slack-jawed with wonder. He never rises up to overpower the song, but whenever his leads start, you'll feel the hairs on your neck stand at attention.

Richard Thompson's voice, while rough, fits like a worn leather glove to his vocal outings. It's all to his credit that they don't sound lacking beside the clear, warm and emotionally charged wonder that is Linda Thompson's voice. She adds a mature passion and sense of loss to the beautiful Walking on a Wire: You can actually hear the tightrope act of maintaining her composure as life crashes in on her. While the two trade off songs throughout the album, when they come together for a beautiful harmony on the haunting, chiming Wall of Death at the end of the album you realise just how perfectly matched the two were musically.

This album is difficult to categorize. While it has a firm rooting in the Thompson's English folk-rock background, this is used only as a jumping off point. This is certainly the least folkie of their collaborations, with touches of country in Man in Need, hints of the Arabic influence brought by their Muslim faith, the skirling, bagpipe-styled riffs and some true rock-out moments, especially on the title track. Sadly, this album leaves hanging the question of what could have followed. The album was the couple's last, though they deny the obvious theme of broken relationships throughout is a reflection of their own relationship.

Linda is now retired, while Richard continues to release wonders of songwriting and playing. As yet, though, this remains the work to which anything else he does will be compared.

Shoot Out the Lights, the final long player by the husband/wife duo of Richard and Linda Thompson, while often lumped into the famous "divorce" albums category (Rumours, A Few Small Repairs, et al), is so much more than that.

Let's examine this from an angle or two (or three):

From an album point of view, this is a stunning vista of songwriting and singing at the height of both craft and passion. Linda's vocals on "Walking on A Wire" alone are worthy of the album price. Her dread and pathos come through so clearly even as her voice remains crystalline and beautiful. Likewise, the title track highlights Richard's emotional and fluid guitar work but also reveals that he can be a truly evocative vocalist as well.

The songwriting is consistently excellent, far surpassing the "folk-rock" genre that this supposedly falls into. Likewise, the arrangements push the song to the fore, taking care not to turn this into a showcase for only one facet of the duo's talents.

From a song cycle point of view, it's equally impressive. From the opening gambit "Don't Renege on our Love" to the dissolution displayed in the title track, winding up with the final death of "Did She Jump" and the musical joy/lyrical hope/vocal desperation of "Wall of Death," this album takes the listener on an emotional ride that few LP's do. Every track follows the previous one on a tide of emotional sense. It's tighter than a jigsaw puzzle, it fits together so well.

And finally, from a Richard Thompson point of view, SOTL represents the first full intimations of the sound that would carry him through the 80's and 90's. Previous efforts of the duo were firmly rooted in the English folk tradition, with rock accents. SOTL embraces the rock side full on, while still incorporating plenty of good folk.

AND OVERALL: Richard does plenty of strat-based brooding for the guitar fans out there, and Linda's vocals balance out and enhance her tunes. And speaking as one who has seen RT live (acoustic), her vocals bring out the best of the songs she sings here, rather than his blunt but feeling tones. (Not to say that his versions weren't great, but it's Linda that carries her tunes here.)

Both Richard and Linda Thompson have made solo records, his being overall the better, due to his songwriting talent and great guitar work, but her voice interprets more than it echoes when she sings her songs, and that results in some of the best moments of this album.

The ultimate culmination of a soon-doomed partnership. Simply brilliant.

Ever since the late 1960s, Richard Thompson has been one of England's most accomplished yet underrated guitarists in rock. While more flashy yet still deservingly-legendary axemen like Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, and Jeff Beck are the heroes to most of today's budding musicians, Richard's preferred to rely on his musical aptitude alone and not on pyrotechnics with which to build his legend. As a result, his music is still the stuff of cult legends, and those who discover it are far from disappointed. Also, unlike his fellow guitar legends, Richard is also a great songwriter along with being a master musician. It's for that reason alone that albums like SHOOT OUT THE LIGHTS and I WANT TO SEE THE BRIGHT LIGHTS TONIGHT are masterpieces of modern music. Probably the most harrowing and one with the most interesting backstory is SHOOT OUT THE LIGHTS. Richard Thompson had been collaborating with his wife Linda ever since their days in the legendary England folk band Fairport Convention. When they departed the band in the early '70s, they set about recording some of the most emotionally-bare pop music ever committed to tape. By the early '80s though, Richard and Linda's marriage was falling apart. Their dedicated fan base even saw it happen for the most part, as Richard and Linda often argued on stage during a show. With SHOOT OUT THE LIGHTS, the separation was made painfully clear with an album that should be required listening for volatile couples the world over. Apparently, Richard and Linda were in the studio at different times for most of the 8 songs on the album have only one person doing the vocals (most often it's Linda singing with Richard playing). But we get two different viewpoints of a relationship falling by the wayside, making SHOOT OUT THE LIGHTS all the more chilling. You can hear the desperation in Richard's voice when he sings songs like "Don't Renege On Our Love", "Man In Need", "Shoot Out The Lights", "Back Street Slide" and "Wall Of Death". It seems that Richard is the one who doesn't want this relationship to end, and the pain of it is literally killing him. Even with a rather upbeat song like "Back Street Slide" (one of the few songs on here with the slightest hint of levity), Richard still inserts a scathing lyric like "The Backstreet Slide/The Backstreet Slide/They're gonna get you/Dead or alive/Stab you in the back/with a kitchen knife/doing the Backstreet Slide/Do it all day/The Backstreet Slide". You almost think that if Richard is upset over losing Linda, he's had it with women in general according to that song. This raw emotion would be the basis of Richard's solo work after SHOOT OUT THE LIGHTS. But let's not forget Linda, who has some emotions to bare herself. Her haunting voice gives songs like "Walking On A Wire", "Just The Motion" and "Did She Jump Or Was She Pushed" a downright scary feeling that shouldn't be listened to with the lights out. Linda's performance on SHOOT OUT THE LIGHTS shows that she may have been in just as much despair as the man who was not just her collaborator, but her husband behind the scenes. SHOOT OUT THE LIGHTS was rightfully named by ROLLING STONE magazine as the 2nd best album of the year (THRILLER practically blew any and all competition out of the water, I guess). This wasn't the stuff of top 40 radio, of course, so naturally, SHOOT OUT THE LIGHTS didn't find much of an audience outside the couple's dedicated fan base. But this is the perfect album to be spread around courtesy of word of mouth, for I'm sure anyone who has heard it has been made a fan of not just Richard Thompson's work with Linda, but his excellent solo work as well. So SHOOT OUT THE LIGHTS had two goals in mind, I guess: documenting the breakdown of a relationship on record and the album with which to get into the dark magic of Richard Thompson's music, both of which are acheived many times over.

ever since i first bought this CD, i have loved it. Linda's voice soars, as does richards guitar, especially on the title track, where he lets it all loose during the second solo to close the song.
myth or not, this album is one of the best 'breakup' albums of all times. 'dont renege on our love' and 'man in need' are clear enough proof that the thompsons were splitting up.
if you buy this album you wont be disappointed, its one of the best rock records of all time, although severly overlooked.

This is Thompson's earliest masterpiece. The songwriting, singing and performances are all outstanding. Thompson is an acquired taste (particularly his solo stuff). His songs rarely go for the simple hook and the lyrical complexity provides a window into the very soul he's writing and singing about. If you're interested in an intelligent, emotional and perceptive songwriter, you can't go wrong with this album or some of his later material.

One quibble. The original issue of this had a b side that isn't available anywhere else. Why not reissue it with the b side similiar to what Elvis Costello and others have done? Also, the sound quality is good, but this is easily outclassed by Rykodisc's 20bit gold CD. Pick up the gold CD if you can find it as the sound quality puts this one to shame.

Oh my! I first found out about this album when I was reading Rolling Stone magazine about a decade ago. Then I later read about it in several other places. Everyone who talked about it was going on and on about how great it was. So I decided to buy it. Wow! Were those critics ever right! This album is absolutely amazing! I really have to wonder why commercial radio has completely and totally ignored this beautiful work of art. Yes, I call it a work of art because that's exactly what it is. Linda has what is possibly the most beautiful sounding voice of any singer that I have ever heard. Richard is one of the best guitarists ever. The writing is phenominal. There is such a powerful sense of feeling and emotion on all of these songs. Before I bought this, I was usually afraid to buy music that I had never heard before. This CD taught me that it's OK to take a chance on buying something that I had never heard before. Every rock critic whose review of this album I have read gave it their highest rating. And I agree. This album is perfect. It deserves a much bigger audience than what it has gotten so far. How sad that commercial radio has chosen to ignore it.