Recorded from Mexico to Dublin, Daniel Lanois’ album Shine highlights his underrated songwriting ability. Lanois production credits include Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Emmylou Harris and Robbie Robertson as well as much session work and a plethora of soundtracks such as Sling Blade, Sweet Angel Mine and Lost in Mississippi.
Shine, Lanois’ third album, emerges as his most consistent compared to earlier solo albums, Acadie and For the Beauty of Wynona. Shine’s first two songs, “I Love You” and “Falling At Your Feet”, stand as the only two compositions Lanois utilizes outside musical assistance (Emmylou Harris and Bono provide vocals).
The third track, “As Tears Roll By”, commences with an actual Charley Patton riff that fuses into a lucent glow of Lanois’ rhythmic band. Each song on this collection fits with the track before and after it providing a cohesive mood with tunes such as “Sometimes” and the title track lulling the listener into a pleasant trance.
Besides Lanois’ own albums, every project he recorded such as Dylan’s Oh Mercy and Time Out of Mind, Willie Nelson’s Teatro, Emmylou’s Wrecking Ball, U2’s Joshua Tree and Chris Whitley’s Living’ with the Law remain forever stamped with Lanois’ sonic trademark of a deep, lush and haunting sound.
“Transmission” appears as the first of four instrumentals on this 13-song album. Lanois once said this about Shine: “My nomadic travels over the years have brought me much life experience, snapshots which appear on this record. I’ve also rediscovered my first love: the steel guitar. I believe it rescued me one more time.”
The pedal steel guitar serves as a thread running through the songs on Shine. The four instrumentals turn out as some of the album’s strongest compositions. “San Juan” embellishes Lanois’ low-key subterranean sound. “Matador”, another instrumental, evokes a tension causing the listener to imagine a bullfighter about to be gored in the silver screen of the mind’s eye.
“Slow Giving” and “Fire” create a meditative aura contributing to the quiet mood of this formidable collection. The one-drop reggae beat in “Power of One” burns like an ember in a vast blackness–a song transcending any musical boundaries. The “Power of One” lyrics blend with the undercurrent of an urban beat:
“In the middle of the night it came to me
A bridge to your ecstasy
Images of a burned out hell
You coming in with your mission bell
It’s in the shadows, in the sweet scent breeze
In riding out of a death disease
The prettiness shining into complete
In the bitterness burning up in the heat
Don’t sit and wait for the thing to come
Get lit feel the power of one…”
Shine ends with an emotive instrumental titled “JJ Leaves LA” featuring only Lanois playing a slow dirge on pedal steel which he called “the loneliest thing I ever did.” A soulful resonance lingers long after the final seconds of this collection fades. The songs on Shine dissolve like a musical sedative.
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