RECORDS

Rip It Up, Issue 52, 1 November 1981, Page 24

RECORDS

Peter Thomson

Rodney Crowell Warner Bros There are some performers who can take a style that has been run into the ground by others and make it transcend, all the cliches and shimmer with new life. In the seventies. Gram Parsons was the man who worked such a miracle with country rock. In the eighties Rodney Crowell is doing the same thing.

Crowell’s debut album, Ain't Living Long Like This, from 1978 was a largely undiscovered gem, containing brilliant writing - try a line like, "Dad rode a stockcar to an early death, all . I remember was a drunk mans breath'’ - allied with superb melodies.

It is a pleasure to report that on his third album, Rodney Crowell, the man's voice sounds in better shape than ever, and there's nothing wrong with his songwriting either. Crowell has turned to other writers, Keith Sykes, Ray King and Tommy Hill, for the two steamers on the new album, 'Just Wanta Dance' and 'Old Pipelined, but his own songs include a couple of ballads, Til I Gain Control Again' and Shame On The Moon', that are as lovely as anything he has ever written before. If you ever liked the country side of. the Byrds, or the Burrito Brothers, then listen to Crowell. He's no throwback. He would be a major talent in whatever era he emerged.

Phil .Gifford

Jimmy Cliff Give The People What They Want WEA Manu Dibango

Gone Clear Island

Robbie Shakespeare and Sly Dunbar are a dominating force in black music nowadays. They're the power beind two of the year's best albums, Grace Jones' Nightclubbing and Black Uhuru's Red and also answer the roll call on both these discs.

One problem, however, is the threat that the Taxi sound will overpower the artists it's simply meant to back up. In Jimmy Cliff's case, there's little risk of this. The man's just too good a singer and songwriter, and Give The People is his best work 1 in years. Cliff is no Rasta, his : mind is open, as shown in the title track: Some like it in a rub-a-dub . style

Some like it when the rhythm is wild,' Some like it in a one-drop ’style} HHßjßHHHri Some like it in a Jimmy Cliff style, Reggae music is sweeter everywhere ...

Cliff is one of the original freedom fighters, and when he gets angry, the man is mad: You babbling fools Taking innocent ones on a wobbling spool In your ageing schools Filled with broken rules ...

Manu Dibango finds the going hard amidst the same company, not to say Geoffrey Chung, Ansel Collins, and even the Brecker Brothers. Dibango, a West African, is best remembered for his early 1970's hit 'Soul Makossa', which he revives in reggae style on Gone Clear. He plays sax, marimba and keyboards, and

sings, but it's the people backing him who carry this album. 'Pleasant' is the word that springs readily to mind, a mellow blend of reggae and funk which should be checked out by all those who liked that last Grover Washington Jr album. Duncan Campbell

Joan Armatrading

Walk Under Ladders

A&M Joan Armatrading's first, visit to New Zealand included a masterly performance in Christchurch. Second time through she came right down to Dunedin, and . gave one of the most disappointing concerts I've ever seen. The difference on that, second tour was her desire to be seen as a sunken centrepiece of a band, and with that desire driven home by the bang-bash drums of Danny Seiwell and conveyed to the audience by the Dunedin Town Hall's atrocious acoustics I left that concert with teeth ground to dust. The syndrome of the proven solo performer wanting to be part of a band is as common as it is understandable in rock, but it makes things tougher for the writer on record. On last year's Me Myself I, Armatrading showed she had the flexibility and the sheer writing ability to come out on top, but on this new. one, she battles. The synthesisers of Thomas Dolby help her on 'l'm Lucky' and 'Only One' and some fun is had with the DunbarShakespeare team on 'I Can't Lie To Myself', but the stronger tracks aren't strong enough to exorcise the mediocrity ('When I Get It Right' and 'Eating The Bear' especially).. The strongest shots are delivered in the middle of the record 'No Love', and a moving tale of loving two 'The Weakness In Me'. It is only then we are reminded just how . classy a writer this lady can be. Roy Colbert John Martyn

Glorious Fool WEA

John Martyn's previous LP Grace and Danger, was released here in January and is still on my short list of the year's best albums. It was his first release since 1977 and now here we have another, on a new label, within a year. Glorious Fool is produced by Phil Collins who again plays drums and, although bass and keyboards personnel have changed since Grace, the overall exemplary standard of musicianship has been maintained. Then of course there are the remarkable guitar, vocal and writing abilities of Martyn himself. While freely drawing on rock, folk, jazz-and blues, Martyn remains beyond categorisation, a true original,

But if the best tracks on Glorious Fool easily measure up to the superlative standard of its predecessor, many lack the wellcrafted structure not to say melodic hooks that gave Grace such strength. Often here, the group will brilliantly establish a mood only for it to never develop beyond a few sprawling phrases. Still, despite its shortcomings Glorious Fool's merits make me definitely pleased to own it. A patchy John Martyn album is better than no John Martyn album at all.