Customer Reviews

One Man Guy:Best of Loudon Wainwright

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1 star:		(1)

 

 

LWIII has released so much material over the years, it's easy to pick a "best of" release apart & trash it for not having this or that on it, but there's plenty of jewels on this disc. Besides, this disc focuses on his 4 years, and 3 albums with the Rounder label only. Some consider this period the peak in his career and, some, like myself consider his last 10 years his peak, but you can't deny that they've taken the very best of these 3 disc's to make up the 70-plus minutes of Loudon's take on "love relationships" phase. Man, this guy's a piece of work. After listening to this you realize that they just don't make "Singer Songwriters" like him anymore. I hope he lives to be a hundred.

I'm a relative newcomer to LWIII and have been trying to work my way through his arsenal of music for some time now. Started out well when I purchased "History," a classic. Followed up with this one and was slightly disappointed. Then went on to get "Last Man on Earth" which is one of the most haunting, entertaining albums I think I've ever bought. I'm back on track and continuing to sift through the catalogue.

I think this one faulters, though not because of the artist. The selection of songs from this period doesn't reflect the artist. Some great songs on here, no doubt. Perhaps it's because his albums deserve to be taken in their own context. I think this may be the reason he's stayed away from a big compilation.

It wouldn't be a mistake to buy this one. It would be a better idea to buy each album that makes up this "best of" collection.

I like Loudon's later work a lot, so bought this best of. But this collection disappointed me. I listened a couple time but it did not grab me like the later work.

This is one of ten of Loudon's cd's that I own and I like them all, so my advice would naturally be, buy this one, then, buy another nine. You can't go wrong !

This compilation covers Wainwright's 3 albums released for the Rounder label during 1982-86.

Wainwright is a very gifted songwriter whose intelligent lyrics rarely feels unimportant. His songs usually show engagement and honesty - and very often there's a great sense of sarcasm and humour in his lyrics.

Some of his live-favourites come from this period, and I recently had the pleasure of seeing him perform live at the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester. Fine songs like "One Man Guy" and "IDTTYWLM" were in his highly entertaining performance.

Other songs from this collection that stand out are the two heartfelt songs written for his children, "Your Mother and " and "Five Years Old".

The opening track "Hard Day on the Planet", the acoustic country-ballad "Westchester County" and his John Lennon tribute are other favourites.

Fine sleeve notes; recommended!

if you prefer Loudon's comical/not so musical side you might enjoy this CD; however, if you prefer a mix of serious and lighter songs as i do, you are much better off buying Attempted Mustache, History or Last Man on Earth, all of which i think are really much better. to be honest, i thought most of the songs on this CD were pretty poor, and did not seem to reflect much effort or significant emotion. Sorry.