Record of the day: Chris Rea, “Shamrock Diaries”

Chris Rea
“Shamrock Diaries” (Cd Magnet MAG5062)

A veil of autumnal melancholy envelops all the songs on this album, among the best by an English author whose music has for many years managed to combine blues, rock and pop sounds in a sophisticated mélange that has become a hit in the European charts thanks to successes such as “Josephine”, “The Road to Hell”, “I Can Hear Your Heartbeat”.
His guitar style certainly owes something to Ry Cooder and Mark Knopfler (with whom Chris collaborated) but it is above all Rea’s hoarse and enveloping voice, which with tones devoid of histrionics tells stories characterized by a painful sense of nostalgia, which has ensured him success also among the general public in the charts.

Rea has the pace of a cross-country skier, his career has led him to sell millions of records but the journey has been long and thoughtful,
each album has increased the popularity of the previous one and the numerous concerts around the planet have ensured him the loyalty of fans thanks to the generosity with which Rea has always offered himself without ever sparing himself.
The songs on “Shamrock Diaries” talk about distant memories that suddenly return to the foreground thanks to sudden and burning ‘senhal’, be they the voice of a choir heard by chance while passing by a church (in the title track) or an old man Carole King’s album which plunges the protagonist into his distant adolescence (in “Steel River”).

The loneliness and disillusionment of “Stone” and “Love Turns to Lies” are described through dry lyrics, where rhetorical images are banned, just as the instrumental fabric avoids any commercial slurring thanks to perfectly calibrated arrangements where the soft keyboards by Max Middleton and guitars by Rea himself, from time to time delicate or scratchy.
The tender little picture of “Josephine” was born as a ballad but takes on a more rhythmic character in the end, while “Chisel Hill” is a song with a pearly light, where not a breath of wind blows, everything is still and even time seems to remain suspended.

The ending of “Hired Gun” definitely increases the dose of rhythmic aggression but overall the general tone of the album is that of distant memories, which still cause a slight and persistent pain; there is no room for invective but only for the “restless sweetness” that Montale spoke of.

Carlo Boccadoro, composer and conductor, was born in Macerata in 1963. He lives and works in Milan. He collaborates with soloists and orchestras in different parts of the world. He is the author of numerous books on musical topics.

This text is taken from “Lunario della musica: A record for every day of the year” published by Einaudi, courtesy of the author and the publisher.