Between 1994 and 1998,
Cris Williamson made three consecutive duo albums with
Tret Fure: Postcards From Paradise, Between the Covers, and Radio Quiet. (She returned to solo recording with 2001's
Ashes.) Although
Williamson, the better known of the two, got first billing,
Fure tended to have more songs on the discs. The partnership apparently concluded,
Williamson here creates a solo album by choosing her tracks from the second and third albums. Actually, the compilation consists of eight of the 13 songs from Radio Quiet plus
Williamson's four solo compositions/lead vocals from Between the Covers, the title song, "Positive Solution," "Invocation," and "Brand New Lullaby." The result is actually a less satisfying album than either of the two from which it has been culled. Between the Covers was a fairly intimate record, a celebration of romantic love (presumably between the two singers, who were pictured lounging together in a hammock on the album cover); Radio Quiet was an altogether more abstract set of material, much of it written in the third person, inspired by the novels of Joseph Conrad and the paintings of Edward Hopper, among other things. It was also more of a true duo album than Between the Covers, which might be described more accurately as a joint album than a duet collection, for the most part.
Williamson's simple, folk-like solo tunes from Between the Covers don't sit all that well with the more musically complex, lyrically allusive Radio Quiet songs. And to anyone who knows the duo albums,
Fure's direct, emotional lyrics are missed.
Williamson reclaims a part of her discography on
Replay, but she does so at a cost. ~ William Ruhlmann