Graham Parker – The Mona Lisa's Sister

Released in 1988, The Mona Lisa's Sister is almost certainly Graham Parker's latest album to peep into the charts and in any case among the most remarkable of his, just a step below those of his early punk-rock beginnings. And if you think about it, we still find an echo of those “heroic” years in these eleven tracks of a no-frills music. Short lasting pieces of just about 3 min, straightforward arrangements dodging all mannerism, self-made production with only the faithful Brinsley Schwartz (long-time guitarist of The Rumour) and the backing of a small-sized band. Some quick-off pieces («Don't Let It Bring You Down»; «Ok Hyeronymus»; «Under The Mask Of Happiness» and also «I Don't Know») and a few ballads indulging to melancholy («Back In Time»; «I'm Just Your Man»; «Blue Highways» along with the self-deprecating tune of «Success»). We have then the light-hearted reggae of «The Girl Isn't Ready» with a veiled homage to Bob Dylan ("She walks like a woman / but talks just like a kid") and a poignant cover of Sam Cooke’s «Cupid» for the album closing. Speech apart for swinging mid-tempo of «Get Started. Start A Fire» introducing the Mona Lisa’s Sister of the title, but unfortunately showing the weakest lyrics of the lot: much too complicated stories for just one song (Marilyn and Kennedy, a burning Joan of Arc and our unsmiling model rejected by Leonard). As for the band, along with Schwartz, bassist Andrew Bodnar is another Rumour while in a couple of songs former Attractions’ drummer Paul Thomas makes a link to Graham Parker’s one time “brother in arts” Elvis Costello. Summarizing about this record: modest cover painting and photograph, but overall nice songs with a stripped-off sound uncommon for the eighties. Not-to-be-forgotten album.