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**SIGHS MATTERS**Lately, Mayo Thompson and The Red Krayola have been thrilling us to the extreme. The level of musicianship, surprise, deep thoughts, hot and cold running humor and really, all-round entertainment found in their Introduction LP/CD and “Red Gold” CDEP releases of 2006 might have represented a one-two punch for some - but damn if The Red Krayola don’t intend to push their luck with a bit of the old three-four here in 2007. First (and finally!) was the return of Soldier-Talk, their 1979 punk-pop uber-work - a reissue nearly 30 years in the making, a classic slab never before compacted to disc. Now The Red Krayola have re-allied with Art & Language to produce an all-new work. Art & Language, as you may recall, are an arts collective whose lyrics provided The Red Krayola with a springboard to several of their classic songs - “A Portrait of V.I. Lenin in the Style of Jackson Pollock,” “Black Snakes,” “Born In Flames,” “Future Pilots” and of course, all of the Kangaroo? and Corrected Slogans albums. For many, these recordings represented the epochal The Red Krayola contribution…but for those many, the new album Sighs Trapped By Liars will force extreme revisionism (or as the more stiff-necked may assert, revulsionism!). That’s just how good the new album by The Red Krayola with Art & Language is. The cast of Tom Watson, John McEntire, Noel Kupersmith, Jim O’Rourke and Mayo Thompson roll out a deep-pile musical carpet for chanteuses Elisa Randazzo and Sandy Yang, who share lead vocal duties throughout the entire record. That’s right - no signature vocal presence from Mayo, who contents himself in arranging vocal lines for the ladies straight out of his private libretto. They acquit themselves magnificently to the complexities of the Art & Language lyrics, which are as ever caught up in social and aesthetic conflicts - though a new and different wave of issues than the 70s and 80s lyrics addressed. To unravel the Gordian knot for yourself, you’ll find great enjoyment in hearing Sighs Trapped By Liars, which will be available everywhere that the world is envisioned as a better place (and sells records) in the waning moments of September!
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