Rickie Lee Jones Masterpiece 'pirates' Revisited

[DudeAsInCool]

Review: No Doubt About It - This CD Is A Masterpiece

Rickie Lee Jones' 2nd album Pirates marked a radical departure for the beret wearing, Jack Daniel's swilling Coolsville resident. Piano-based and Steely Dan influenced, "Pirates" remains, over 20 years after it's release one of the most haunting pieces of music ever recorded. It marked a creative highwater mark that (unfortunately for all), Rickie has never again reached.

From the opening notes of "We Belong Together", it's clear that this work is much sadder than her debut. "We Belong Together" is every great male-rocking-loner song, with incredible shifts of tempo and texture, and a vocal performance that is gut-wrenching. "Living It Up", with its "Wild, and the Only Ones" chorus and awesome bridge (thanks to a great contribution from Sal Bernardi, Rickie's ex-lover and long term accompaniest), is the musical equivalent of the solemn Brassai photograph that adorns the album's cover. "Woody and Dutch" is the keyboard cousin of Rickie's "Danny's All Star Joint", with caramel coated basslines and cotton candy spun call and response vocals. "Pirates (So Long Lonely Avenue)" reminds you of why horns are so sadly missed in this era of teen vocals and electronic instrumentation. And the genuine masterpiece of this album, "Traces Of The Western Slope" is a near 8 minute tribute to distant ghosts, vacant eyed dope fiends and sexual awakening, played out with Becker and Fagen inspired instrumentation and Tom Waits like lyrics.

No woman has ever written, or laid down a jazz/rock classic that comes near this song. Between birthdays, Christmas gifts, and replacing copies that I have owned (on 3 different formats), I have probably purchased at least 30 copies of this disc over the years. And yet I still don't feel like I have fully compensated Rickie Lee for the contribution she made to my muscial education with this album. It has grown with me like an old friend, and remains to this day an all time favorite.

Unknown Reviewer • MusicMysic.com