2000 Great Songs #1427: Temporary Beauty
Graham Parker is one of those long-running artists with a massive, almost invariably reliable discography, where I have a million albums I can pull out and say, yep, this one's pretty good... but who don't necessarily create songs that I find revelatory. (Good lord--I'm just discovering this is his first mention in the seven years I've been doing this thing!) Which is fine; the world needs really good artists. And while I particularly like his early work with The Rumour, merging 70s British pub rock with the angrier, lyrically biting, punk-adjacent style of Elvis Costello , there's something about the sound of these records that limits my enjoyment of them. In contrast, Parker's first solo album, 1982's Another Grey Area , just sounds a little fuller to my ears, with a more emotional, Springsteen -like vibe. Opening song "Temporary Beauty" is a much more mainstream-ready ballad than anything that had come before, with his prettiest, most hum-alon...
