Rickie Lee Jones • Pirates
Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab/Warner Brothers MFSL 1-328
33-RPM 180 g LP
Pirates is Rickie Lee Jones’ 1981 followup to her successful eponymously-titled debut. Musically more ambitious than its predecessor, Pirates partly laments Jones’ breakup with Tom Waits, opening with the poignant We Belong Together. Two of the tracks, Skeleton and The Returns were recorded live in the studio.
Jones is joined by such musicians as Steve Gadd (drums on the title track and We Belong Together), Donald Fagen (synthesizers on Pirates), David Sanborn (alto sax), and Sal Bernardi (vocals on Living it Up and Traces of the Western Slopes, the latter of which he co-wrote).
I don’t have a copy of the original with which to compare this reissue from Mobile Fidelity, but that doesn’t matter because the sound quality is great. There is, arguably, a touch of hardness to the cymbals, but that’s about it as far as sonic complaints are concerned.
Pirates is another example of reissues done right: the thick slab of vinyl is flat and has silent surfaces, and Mobile Fidelity has done another first rate job on the packaging. Highly recommended, and a no-brainer if you’re a Rickie Lee Jones fan!