One at a Time: "I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight" (1974) by Richard and Linda Thompson

#479 "I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight" (1974) by Richard and Linda Thompson

I had never heard "I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight" before I listened to it for this.

It's pretty much right up my alley, though. This type of stripped-down folk is one of my go-to genres, and I'm also a big fan of mixing a male and female voice, which "I Want to See The Bright Lights Tonight" does excellently throughout its track listing.

It's beautiful music that isn't lofty and dreamy and spacey, but rustically beautiful. It's not exactly the type of music that is typically described as beauty, and I think that's mostly because of its down-home and dirty feel, and partly because of Richard Thompson's at-times awkward way of singing. Really, each track is fantastic, and together the album is even more so.

I called the album down-home and stripped, but it's by no means lo-fi, it's just a simple sound. There are a lot of different things going on here, like multiple crumhorns (whatever that is) on the first track "When I Get To The Border", or the wavering guitar in the background of "The Calvary Cross," or the accordion on other select tracks.

For me, the best moments on the album are the chorus of the title track, along with the horns in the background filling in moments between the verses. If you don't know it, which seems likely, as I'd never even heard of Richard and Linda Thompson before this, give it a listen.

This is probably the first since I started writing this series that I'm truly thankful to find something new (to me). I can see this album really fitting well into my rotation, and I can't wait to get to know it even better. The real fight here for me is between this album and "Car Wheels on a Gravel Road" by Lucinda Williams. Right now, I'm going to have to go with "Car Wheels," probably because I've lived with that album for so much longer and I just know it much better, but there may be a time in the future, after this one has had more time to settle in my mind, that it moves around.

1. "Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ" (1973) by Bruce Springsteen 
2. "Tapestry" (1971) by Carole King
3. "Tea for the Tillerman" (1970) by Cat Stevens 
4. "Car Wheels On a Gravel Road" (1998) by Lucinda Williams 
5. "I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight" (1974) by Richard and Linda Thompson
6. "Number One Record" (1972) by Big Star
7. "Bookends" (1968) by Simon and Garfunkel
8. "The Bends" (1995) by Radiohead
9. "Stop Making Sense" (1984) by The Talking Heads
10. "Honky Chateau" (1972) by Elton John 
11. "Burnin'" (1973) by The Wailers 
12. "The Rolling Stones Now!" (1965) by The Rolling Stones
13. "Born Under A Bad Sign" (1967) by Albert King
14. "The Slim Shady LP" (1999) by Eminem