Suspending Disbelief

Jimmy Webb | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 7, 1993)
• Original Release Date: September 7, 1993
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Elektra / Wea
• ASIN: B000002HDE
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #360,138 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Webb Proves the Best is yet to come., June 28, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Suspending Disbelief (Audio CD)

Let's face it, you're either a Jimmy Webb fan or you're not. For those of us who thought that 1982's "Angel Heart" would be Webb's last album as a singer/songwriter, "Suspending Disbelief" has been a revelation, not least because this is Webb singing as we have never heard him before...but always hoped to. The voice is clear, pure, has good resonance and there's an abundance of good top notes...clearly some singing lessons in evidence or perhaps the influence of Linda Ronstadt who produced and also offers fine back up vocals on three tracks.

The repertoire is eclectic...ranging from superb "new" songs like the enchanting "Postcards from Paris,"...with its delicious elongated ending, to a mellow and melancholy country feel on the even newer "It Won't Bring Her Back" with Ben Keith on slide guitar. A strong and "ballsy" medium rock opener, "Too Young To Die" chronicles Jimmy's lasting affair with his "Cobra" ..that "sweet old racin' car of mine", and blows out of the water any suggestion that Webb is only about ballads, and Steve Lukather's guitar solo is an adrenaline hit. This track could well have been a single!

Melancholy, though, has been, and always will be, a trademark of this artist, and in "Sandy Cove" Webb gives us the definitive mid-life crisis song as he examines with extraordinary honesty and insight his own failures, and his inability to put them right. I am still unable...several hundred listenings later... to get all the way through this track without choking up.

The poignant "I Don't Know How To Love You Anymore" is another tear-jerker and stunning lyrically... though for this Webbophile, the arrangement does nothing for the song, and I'm left to wonder about the orchestration choice. However, "Elvis and ME" is a charming, picaresque homage to the king...with Jimmy as the fan, a lovely cut.

The weak track on the album is the show tune "What Does a Woma! n See In A Man". It belongs only in the musical theatre..the arena for which it was designed...or as part of a cabaret performance. It's strangely out of kilter with the rest of the album. Having said that, it offers us, amidst the slightly forced humour, and somewhat self-conscious cleverness, several poetic lines worthy of the best Webb has given us.

The last four tracks...Postcards from Paris, Just Like Always, Adios ( Jimmy solo with just the piano), and I Will Arise, are worth the price of the CD alone. The last track, adapted from the traditional Baptist hymn, boasts Jimmy reaching head notes we never suspected he had, and a glorious string arrangement (proving again that Jimmy is a good as it gets as a string arranger when he's "on")...with a "hoedown" feel giving way to sombre cellos for an elongated and almost spiritual finale to what must be...for any follower of Jimmy Webb's, the pinnacle of a somewhat topsy-turvy and patchy recording career.

If you loved 1977's El Mirage...you will want to own "Suspending Disbelief".

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of Webb's Best, June 11, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Suspending Disbelief (Audio CD)

Amazon needs to get the Bob Wills album cover down from the site, the one for Suspending Disbelief would be more appropriate! This is far from Jimmy Webb's last album, but certainly one of his best. His fans know what a treat this CD was when it first came out (1992), (first in 10 years)...after seven years I'm still listening to it. Best songs: Too Young To Die, I Don't Know How To Love You Anymore, Elvis & Me, and the Grand Finale....I Will Arise...a "Copelandesque" version of some old standard hymns. Only the genius of Jimmy Webb could conceive of this and pull it off so well.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not his best, but a well-done CD, May 19, 2008

By 

R. Kyle (USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Suspending Disbelief (Audio CD)

Jimmy Webb's created some of the best music of the past 50 years yet he's very underappreciated as a performer. I've seen him live and I can tell you, he's one of the most interactive and gracious performers I have ever had the pleasure to see.

"Suspending Disbelief", which was produced by Linda Ronstadt, is not one of his best but it's pretty darn good. There's quite a few standouts in this CD. Here are picks from a lifetime Webb fan:

"Too Young to Die" is about Jimmy's affair with his Cobra. This one, which could easily have been done by Warren Zevon, proves he can rock with the best of them.

Too fast for comfort
Too low to fly
Too young...

"I Don't Know How to Love You Anymore," talks about the sudden realization you're out of love. It's the ballad you'd expect from Jimmy--"it's deafening when two's a crowd..."

"I will Arise" is the old Baptist hymn, but with Webb based orchestration. This goes back to the old days when Webb started as a church musician.

"Elvis and Me" talks about an experience with the King.

This CD is well worth the price if you like half the music. The funny thing is my favorites change every time I dust off this CD and listen. Yours probably will too.

Rebecca Kyle, May 2008