Pirates

PIRATES is also available with the album RICKIE LEE JONES on one cassette.
Rickie Lee Jones's second album, PIRATES, continues where her self-titled debut left off. With a record built upon storytelling, Jones resumes her role of poet laureate to the disenchanted and disconsolate. A strongly dynamic outing, the emotion of each song resonates in the detailed arrangements and freewheeling improvisations, the latter best epitomized by the funky party song, "Woody and Dutch on the Slow Train to Peking."
However, PIRATES is not a celebratory album. For the most part, this record is darker than its predecessor, and this tone yields even richer insights into Jones's art. For example, "Lucky Guy," a song Jones wrote about her relationship with singer Tom Waits, tells of love gone wrong and the resulting feeling of abandonment. Another poignant moment is the simple, almost plaintive refrain in "The Returns." On this song, Jones's sunken voice is buoyed by an unexpected lyric of hope. This piece, scored for a full orchestra, rounds out the otherwise melancholic quality of songs like "Skeletons" and the title track, "Pirates (So Long Lonely Avenue)."