Ignored             Obscured              Restored

Wreckless Eric (born Eric Goulden) made his reputation with “Whole Wide World,” a 1977 single released on England’s Stiff Records and featured on the label’s influential sampler A Bunch of Stiff Records.

Amy Rigby is an American singer-songwriter known for her bracingly direct lyrics about sex, love, and relationships.  Despite years of critical acclaim, she has never achieved widespread commercial popularity.

The two first crossed paths in 2000, when Rigby performed “Whole Wide World” at the Bull Hotel in Hull.  They reconnected four years later at a Yo La Tengo show in New Jersey, eventually marrying in 2008 and beginning a fruitful musical partnership soon after.

Between 2008 and 2012, they released three full-length albums together, each stronger than the last.  The final entry in that trilogy, A Working Museum, earned an A+ rating from the famously exacting critic Robert Christgau in 2012.  He singled out Rigby’s “Do You Remember That” as, perhaps, the love song of the year.

The autobiographical song opens with lyrics that are both tender and perfectly timed:

It was a cold December night
I was sorting out my life
You were headed for a mess
But you didn’t know it yet
As I pushed in through crowd
You were turning your amp up loud
Then our eyes met
Do you remember that?

From there, Rigby adds detail upon detail, small moments accumulating until the full picture comes into focus: a love story that leads, improbably and joyfully, to marital bliss.

Musically, the song bounces along on a strummed acoustic guitar and a simple electronic drum beat.  It gradually builds with harmony vocals and Eric’s fuzzy guitar lick, tastefully enhanced by judicious feedback.

As we reach the end of another cold, rainy December, it’s hard to imagine anything better than a charming love song like this to draw the holiday season to a close.

Enjoy… until next week.