When
Graham Parker issued the
Jack Nitzsche-produced
Squeezing out Sparks in 1979, many inside the music industry -- from execs to critics -- figured that his next one would be it, since
Squeezing just missed, though it was celebrated by nearly everyone who heard it. Two of
Parker's first three albums --
Howlin' Wind and
Heat Treatment -- were top-notch, hard hitting
rock & roll albums full of great songs and mud-slinging
pub rock production that connected in England. It felt like only a matter of time.
Arista in its infinite wisdom paired
Parker with
Jimmy Iovine for
The Up Escalator in 1980, and for some reason,
Iovine decided to slicken up the singer/songwriter and his band rather than the hard-edged production that clicked when he worked with
Bruce Springsteen and
Tom Petty. While the songs were there, the sound wasn't, and it must have been discouraging for
Parker. His moment had come and gone.
Parker wasn't about to let fate cheat him, though, and for 1982's
Another Grey Area, he teamed with veteran producer
Jack Douglas, and placed his band on recording hiatus in favor of a slew of studio musicians including
Nicky Hopkins,
Hugh McCracken (!),
David Brown and
George Small among others. Things start well enough with the mid-tempo rocker
"Temporary Beauty"; with its
Springsteen-esque piano and ondioline courtesy of
Hopkins, the rounded lead guitar lines fall into place, wrapping themselves around
Parker's voice on the refrains, and it works.
Parker nearly spits out his words, full of irony, empathy, piss and vinegar. They even hold up on the title track, which cooks along with a bitter edge, a brisk tempo set by a snare/hi-hat combination and six strings upfront pushing the singer. Female backing vocals to fill it in and the bassline nearly percolates. But
Douglas' production begins to wear thin by
"Big Fat Zero," despite
Parker's fine writing. He doesn't seem to be able to capture the knife edge the band tries to counter the vocals with. It's all swirl and twirl without resolution or warmth. Ironically, it's the rawness on
Parker's earlier records that made them warm. The reliance on "new wave" sounding electric keyboards also mars the tunes. The ballad
"Dark Side of the Bright Lights," works well, as does the horn-driven, funky
"You Hit the Spot." But the sameness of some of the rockers such as
"Can't Waste a Minute" and the poignant
"Crying for Attention" suffer.
"It's All Worth Nothing Alone" is punched up a bit, but there still seems to be this glassfloor sheen on everything, which is entirely at odds with the biting humor and scathing social observations
Parker makes in both his lyrics and his delivery. Ultimately,
Another Grey Area is another "might have been if" set for
Parker, and about the last time he believed a word of what anyone from a record company ever said to him. ~ Thom Jurek