Easter Island

Easter Island is at once the most commercial and most unorthodox of Kris Kristofferson’s '70s albums. Producer David Anderle gives the music a surface sheen that's smooth and clean, and the easygoing (if slightly brooding) grooves of “Risky Bizness,” “The Sabre and the Rose” and “Easter Island” are almost radio-friendly. However, the same songs contain some of the most elliptical lyrics of Kristofferson’s career. The title track is a mysterious rumination on the statues of Easter Island while “Sabre and the Rose” is a cowboy romance gone surreal. The imagery of “The Fighter” is more concrete, and Kristofferson suggests that the broken-down genius at its center is overlooked songwriting legend Billy Joe Shaver. Like most of Kristofferson’s late-'70s output Easter Island deals with disillusionment — with success, with love — and at times he appears to be desensitized to the world that fueled his early songs. Despite the cynicism of “Spooky Lady’s Revenge,” songs like “Forever In Your Love” show that Kristofferson’s love runs deep: “If we never see a single dream come true / Hey, I still believe in you and me and I'm not sorry.”