Marti Jones Match Game 1986

Marti Jones didn't make any bad records. Any and all of her releases are worth your coin, and most of them are excellent displays of carefully chosen, well-written folk-pop mixed with the best of Don Dixon's writing credits, and also Dixon's most attentive productions. After her 1985 debut Unsophisticated Time featured that exact formula to near perfect results and limited sales, they tried one time to make a rock record.

And what a record it is. Unlike any of her records (although the excellent Live At Spirit Square also rocks at times), Match Game is singular in it's rocking, and yet maintains the organic sound that Dixon applies to all of her recordings. This is especially important because it was 1986, and this record eschews the slick sound of the eighties (think Pat Benatar), and instead sounds like those fine Bowie and Mott analog recordings of the early seventies.

The record includes premiere songwriting throughout. Dixon brings his Be Myself Again, Touch Tone, and Inside These Arms, all solid efforts. And then there's Bowie's Soul Love (a wonderful version), Dwight Twilley's Chance Of A Lifetime, Elvis Costello's Just A Memory, Paul Rogers' Soon I Will Be Gone, Marshall Crenshaw's Whenever You're On My Mind, Liam Sternberg's Crusher, John David's It's Too Late, Reed Nelson's We're Doing Alright, and Robert Barone's Foolish Lies. The record is a study in great songcraft.

And then there's the guest list of musicians: Mitch Easter, Ricky Bird, Darlene Love, Vinnie Zummo, Treva Spontaine, Marshall Crenshaw, Robert Crenshaw, Paul Carrack, T-Bone Burnett, Micky Curry, Rick Ford, and of course Don Dixon. Every note is in place perfectly. And Dixon's production captures it all in vivid, analog glory.

Lest we forget, there's Marti's clear, beautiful alto voice and inspired use of said instrument to illuminate every lyric. More forceful (yet still somehow casual) on many of these songs than on much of her material, it brings out the best in her.

There is not another record quite like it. Not just in Marti's oeuvre, but anywhere really. I didn't remember it when I made a list of perfect records, but that was my omission, and a terrible mistake. One of my favorite artists in a singular moment early in her career.