Pirates (album)
Pirates is the second studio album by American singer-songwriter Rickie Lee Jones, released on July 15, 1981 by Warner Bros. Records. The follow-up to her 1979 self-titled debut album, "Pirates" is partially an account of her break-up with fellow musician Tom Waits after the success of her debut album. The cover is a 1976-copyrighted photo by Brassaï. Recording. Initial recording for "Pirates" began in January 1980, with the live recordings for "Skeletons" and "The Returns" from January 30 from these sessions kept on the final album. In the same month, Jones picked up  a Grammy Award for Best New Artist. Jones came to album sessions at Warner Bros. Recording Studios in North Hollywood with five songs, which were recorded and arranged in a two-month spurt in early 1980 before Jones was given an extended break for further writing. Album sessions reconvened in November 1980 and concluded in April 1981, three months before the album release. All songs were copyrighted on June 9, 1980, as well as "Hey Bub", which was omitted from the album release, except for "Living It Up" and "Traces of the Western Slopes", copyrighted in July 1981, at the  time of the album release. Overview. Jones relocated to New York City after her split from Tom Waits and soon set up home with a fellow musician, Sal Bernardi from New Jersey, whom she had met in Venice, California, in the mid-1970s, writing in their apartment in Greenwich Village. Bernardi, who had been referenced in the lyrics to "Weasel and the White Boys Cool" from her debut, was to become a frequent collaborator with Jones, and they composed the epic eight-minute suite "Traces of the Western Slopes" together. Jones started writing the first songs from the album - "Hey Bub  (unreleased until 1983), We Belong Together" and "Pirates" - in the autumn of 1979. Elsewhere, the music on "Pirates" is often cinematic, with influences ranging from Leonard Bernstein to Bruce Springsteen and Laura Nyro. The album is more musically ambitious than its predecessor and explores elements of jazz, R&B, bebop, pop and Broadway, with multiple changes in tempo and mood within most songs. Critical reception. "Pirates" was well received by most critics, achieving a five-star rating in "Rolling Stone", which featured Jones for a second time on the cover of the August 6, 1981, issue. The album also became a  Top 5 US chart success and remained on the UK album charts for three months without the aid of a major hit single. "The Age" wrote in their review: "On "Pirates", Rickie Lee Jones executes a brilliant artistic leap which not only outshines her Grammy-winning debut album but establishes her as one of the most important singer/songwriters of the decade." Stephen Holden writing in "Rolling Stone" concluded his review by saying "[i]t's Rickie Lee Jones' voice that carries "Pirates" to the stars and makes her whole crazy vision not only comprehensible but compulsive, compelling and as welcome  as Christmas in July."