Light And Shade (Fra Lippo Lippi Album)

''Light and Shade'' is the fourth studio album by Norwegian new wave band Fra Lippo Lippi.

It was recorded in Los Angeles, California and produced by Walter Becker of Steely Dan fame. The recording was said to cost . The music was chiefly recorded by studio musicians, on the request of Becker. Talking to ''Morgenbladet'', the group said: "We are not that stupid as to say 'Sorry, if we can't play, the deal is off'. We took a pretty pragmatic stance towards the recording as such. Why should Rune spend an entire day doing a bass line that could be done by someone else in less than two others? We were the bank of ideas, our music was being recorded and we were in full control all the way". They aimed for a total sale of 300,000–400,000 albums.

Following the success of the 1985 album ''Songs'', Virgin Records had the band work on a follow-up album with the United States as its intended target market. The first single, "Angel" received moderate airplay on a radio station in Los Angeles. However, during this time, the US arm of Virgin Records dropped several artists off their roster – Fra Lippo Lippi being one of them. Frustrated by the album's failure to capture the US market, the band parted ways with Virgin Records in 1988.

Reception

''Aftenposten'' called ''Light and Shade'' "one of the best records by Norwegian performers I have ever heard". Several songs were classics. The album also received positive reviews with 4 stars in ''Bergens Arbeiderblad'' and ''Tønsbergs Blad'', and elsewhere in ''Stavanger Aftenblad'', ''Fædrelandsvennen'' and ''Fredriksstad Blad''.

According to ''Bergens Tidende'', it was "good pop", but "boring". The band would "thoroughly fall through with his product". ''Adresseavisen'' found the band "more boring than on ''Songs''".

''Nordlandsposten'' gave 2 1/2 stars, asking if this was "the disappointment of the year?" and with "not a single hit song". ''Østlendingen'' only gave 2 stars, calling the music "bottom of the barrel".

In the Norwegian music press, Kjetil Rolness called the album "a blurred-out copy of American mainstream music", with "too weak tunes". Eirik Mosveen of ''Beat'' characterized the album as "almost unbelieveably boring", with a passive and limp soundscape, "anonymous" songwriting and the vocals being a "monotonous, lifeless manifestation of nothing". of ''Puls'' magazine stated that "''Light and Shade is lost in a no-man's land of toothlessness". The songwriting, arrangements, musicianship, lyrics and vocals were all "indifferent".

Charts and awards

On the Norwegian ''VG-lista'', the album charted for three weeks and peaked at number 15.

The album was nominated for "pop album of the year" during the 1987 Spellemann Award, but lost out to Tomboy's ''Back to the Beat''.

Track listing

# "Angel"
# "Freedom"
# "Don't Take Away That Light"
# "Beauty and Madness"
# "Home"
# "Light and Shade"
# "Some People"
# "Crazy Wisdom"
# "Stardust Motel"
# "Indifference"

Personnel

*Rune Kristoffersen – bass
*Per Øystein Sørensen – vocals, keyboards
*Walter Becker – guitar
*Tim Weston – guitar
*Dean Parks – guitar
*Mark Morgan – keyboards
*Robbie Buchanan – keyboards
*Mark Isham – trumpet
* Tom Scott – saxophone
*Jimmy Haslip – bass
* Jimmy Johnson – bass
*Abraham Laboriel – bass
*Leroy Clouden – drums
*Claude Pepper – drums
*Jeff Porcaro – drums
*Carlos Vega – drums
*Paulinho da Costa – percussion

References

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1987 albums
Fra Lippo Lippi (band) albums
Albums produced by Walter Becker
Virgin Records albums