Search - Al Stewart :: Sparks of Ancient Light

Solid outing from an old pro

C. Wynes | Dyersburg, TN | 05/18/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Much as the enthusiast press in video games journalism has begun to rate everything on a scale from 8-10, with 7 and below reserved for games by people they don't expect to ever see at a mixer again, fans of a musical artist are sort of expected to rate his albums on a scale of 4-5 stars. This is especially true for niche artists, as buying the record in the first place had nothing to do with public opinion and everything to do with your own musical tastes -- which you have a cognitive bias towards validating. Within that scale, 5 means "this is awesome, I'm a genius for liking it" and 4 means "this stinks but I have to defend it."



All that prologue is merely so I can state that I opt out of such silliness entirely. This is a surprisingly good record that earns every bit of the 4 stars I rate it, but with one sizeable flaw (the weak lyrics) which keeps it from meriting a fifth star.



Generally speaking, new material from a recording artist whose glory days are 30 years behind him is good for little more than an extended bathroom break at his concerts. "Sparks of Ancient Light" certainly shouldn't send you running to the concession stand. It doesn't quite hold up to "Year of the Cat" or "Time Passages", but it slots nicely into a second tier right below them.



The production is slick and professional. The studio musicians are competent, and the smooth electric guitar is a nearly a match for that on the classic 70's albums. Stewart's voice and vocal style has changed very little over 30 years, although I detect a little less enthusiasm in his delivery sometimes. The style could be described as pop-folk, folk music that understands the need for a pop "hook". The record sometimes feels grounded in the 70's and sometimes shows an awareness of the ways pop-folk has grown over the years. "Eisenhower Years" bears some resemblance to the post-breakup Beatles' solo work back in the 70's, but later in the record I found myself wondering what it would be like to hear Jenny Lewis of Rilo Kiley sing "William McKinley".



The lyrics are the biggest weakness this time out. Perhaps they aren't distractingly bad, but they're certainly uninspired. "A Child's View of the Eisenhower Years" is basically written as a laundary list of stuff that happened in the 1950's, it doesn't seem unique to a child's perspective, and in any event Stewart seems to have nothing to say about any of it. Much of "Hanno the Navigator" feels phoned-in, especially the chorus which couldn't have taken more than 5 minutes to write. The premise of "Elvis at the Wheel" is goofy tabloid headlines, a topic that was already tired and stale 20 years ago when Weird Al Yankovic was writing parody songs about it.



So Al Stewart may not have much to say these days, but he can still write good music and pepper it with hooks that keep folk's natural tendency towards blandness at bay. I won't give it as many spins as I have his classic 70's records, but I expect this one will stay in my rotation for quite awhile."