Everything changes with time - except basic human motivations. Sparks of Ancient Light, Al's latest collection of songs (following 2005's A Beach Full Of Shells), spans at least 2500 years of history in its tales of exotic locations and situations, all tied to an underlying theme of "certainly and uncertainty." Something's happening in each of these songs, a sense of change and movement beneath the sometimes sedate, sometimes dramatic facades. The larger context isn't always obvious, but the emotions behind the action are always recognizable - love, greed, wanderlust, jealousy, complacency, curiosity, regret, hope.

With winningly varied arrangements mixing folk, rock, classical and jazz, and immaculate production from multiple-Grammy-winning guitarist Laurence Juber (formerly of Paul McCartney's Wings), the CD both starts and ends with songs set in 1896. The opening "Lord Salisbury" examines Great Britain's prime minister flinching from the oncoming events threatening his policy of "splendid isolationism," while the protagonist of the "Like William McKinley" finale awaits the rush of progress with calm resignation. In between those bookends, we are shown "(A Child's View of) The Eisenhower Years," a bouncy evocation of post-World War II optimism; a freaked-out Elvis Presley undergoing a religious revelation as he witnesses Josef Stalin's face morphing into Jesus Christ in a desert cloud "/>

Sparks of Ancient Light

歌手：Al Stewart

发行时间：2008-09-15

专辑《Sparks of Ancient Light》

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