Search - Graham Parker :: Up Escalator

The Escalator Breaks Down

Tim Brough | Springfield, PA United States | 03/25/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This should have been Graham Parker's ride to stardom. Consider: He'd just come off a career best with Squeezing out Sparks, finally cracked the American market, had his record company squarely behind him, and they'd teamed him up with super-producer Jimmy Iovine (Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen). Parker even had a couple ace songs ready to go, with "Stupefaction" cracking the top 100. But the album faltered. While a good album overall, as GP albums go, it's a less than well remembered effort. What happened?



Part of the blame goes to Iovine. Where he managed to harness the widescreen vision and kinetic energy of both Petty and Springsteen, here the music seems restrained and muted. The clean, cutting bite that flamed from the grooves on "Squeezing Out Sparks" is muddled here, one dimensional. The much ballyhooed collaboration with Springsteen came on a song that made little sense. Bob Andrews' departure sapped some of the character from the sound; Nicky Hopkins' piano sounds phoned in, even distracting on the otherwise fine "The Beating Of Another Heart,"



That's not to say the songs are bad, some rank among Parker's best. To this day the memory of GP and The Rumour giving a camera melting performance of "Empty Lives" on the late-night show "Fridays" strikes me as one of the most incredible live rock moments on television. Both "No Holding Back" and "Stupefaction" are engaging, while, for all its banality, "Endless Night" kicks. Throughout the album, The Rumour plays it sharp and solid, even if the murky production has them fighting for air. Momentum made this album match the #40 chart peak of "Sparks," but it couldn't maintain the fascination that the earlier album did. Given that Parker and The Rumour parted ways afterwards (the Jack Douglas produced Another Grey Area was done with session cats), "The Up Escalator" stands as the official end of Graham Parker's angry young man days."