•
Rating: I had left him in 1988, scaled down and short on ideas, I pick him up again now in 1993, after five years of long and healthy silence in discography. With the '80s behind him, Alastair Stewart realizes that chasing the trend of the moment is nothing but a damaging and diminishing exercise; a shy and discreet character, who would never dare to say something like that about himself, Al Stewart is simply hors catégorie, a great artist, absolutely above any passing fashion, and finally being true to himself again was by far the best thing he could do. "Famous Last Words" is the album that starts the second life of the Scottish musician and songwriter, and it does so with a peculiar characteristic: simplicity. FLW is a sincere album, inspired, that finally returns to proposing a linear and clean high-class folk rock with various shades; it lacks a bit the overall vision of the period 1976-1980 or of "Bedsitter Images" rather than "Past Present And Future," but not the elegance, the class, those extraordinary empathetic and communicative skills that made me fall in love with Al Stewart's music.
The album begins with "Feel Like", and it is something almost moving, reminding me of how sometimes really little is needed to give life to a great song: a brief cycle of acoustic guitar chords, a small organ, and a melody that flies high, light, without the encumbrance and shackles of saxophones and synthesizers; a lyric that talks about freedom, feeling happy, at peace with oneself, "You know I feel like a catamaran in summer, the beat of a reggae drummer, the flag of a brigantine". There could not have been a better way to start a varied and dynamic album, ranging from a fun children's rhyme like "Hipposong" to the esoteric suggestions of a bewildering and charming "Necromancer" with its gothic and oriental atmospheres, very theatrical, something one would expect to find in "The Stars We Are" by Marc Almond rather than in this album. What must absolutely not be missing is a reference to history, which as usual provides inspiration for two strong pieces of "Famous Last Words," the poetry of "Charlotte Corday", a dreamy piano ballad with accordion accompaniment, and especially "Trains", eight minutes of light, sweet, and nostalgic acoustic folk ballad, a fresco in gentle colors ennobled by one of the best, most profound, and inspired lyrics ever written by Al Stewart, a stream of consciousness and reflection intersecting with great history and human nature, viewed from a perspective as pessimistic as it is sadly truthful; a heart-stopping line like "Trains, what became of the innocence they had in childhood games, painted red or blue, when I was young they all had names, who'll remember the ones who rode in them to die, all their lives are just a
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
09 Charlotte Corday (03:47)
Al Stewart/Tori Amos)
If you hear a step upon
Your stair tonight
If you see a shadow in
The candle light
It's only your imagination
Leading you astray
See her for a moment
Then she'll slip away
The ghost of Charlotte Corday
She wanders down the hallway
In a long black dress
And lingers by the fireplace
Like a faint caress
Just what it is that brings her here
No man alive can say
See her for a moment
Then she melts away
The ghost of Charlotte Corday
Stars in the window like a panoply
Covering everything
River of night
Stars in the window
See them shining for
Anyone else, anyone else
THe clock ticks in the dark and now
The night is still
The air is like a murmur
On the window sill
All at once there's someone there
That only you can see
Seeking the forgiveness
That will set her free
The wind has taken away
The words she wanted to say
The sky is now turning gray
The dawn is turning away
The ghost of Charlotte Corday
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Loading comments slowly
