Please Don't Make Me Too Happy

Christine Lavin

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 21, 1995)
• Original Release Date: 1995
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Shanachie
• ASIN: B000000DU3
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #363,781 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
On the up side, Christine Lavin's eighth album, Please Don't Make Me Too Happy, includes three hilarious stand-up monologues thinly disguised as folksongs. "Oh No" resembles a Lucille Ball routine where the comedienne can't find her glasses, her purse, or her phone book. "Waiting for the B Train" is a slice-of-life, absurdist narrative from the New York subway system, and the album's title track is a wonderfully exaggerated worry-fest about growing too contented to write meaningful folksongs. On the down side, the album's other nine songs are eye-glazingly earnest. On "Jane," she turns a reunion with a long-lost friend into a smug, humorless put-down of housewives everywhere. On "The Sixth Floor," a song about the Kennedy Museum in Dallas, Lavin manages to make the most controversial historical event of her lifetime deadly dull. Several numbers about the single life wallow in self-pity. And teaming up with musicians who have played with the Band, Nanci Griffith, Bryan Adams, the Max Weinberg Seven, and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra doesn't flesh out Lavin's notoriously thin music so much as it exposes just how limited a singer she is. --Geoffrey Himes

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars I fear my rhyming days are through, January 7, 2005

By	Johnny Heering "trivia buff" (Bethel, CT United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

I got this album after hearing some of Christine's humorous songs. I was somewhat disappointed to find out that most of the songs on this album are serious. They are not bad songs, they are just not what I expected. And there are a few good funny songs. Christine is a clever songwriter, and fans of contemporary folk would probably enjoy her music.

3.0 out of 5 stars Some Really Good Songs, July 15, 2003

By	J. B. Barton "Beth Barton" (Saint Petersburg, FL) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I bought this Cd for 'Constant State of Want' after it played on Public Radio. I am quite pleased with the album. Several of the songs are stellar - 'Jane', 'The Sixth Floor', 'Jagged Hearts', 'Scatter New Seeds', 'Something Wrong with This Picture' are all great songs. The others are not bad, just unusual - you have to keep in mind that Lavin is a humorist so songs like 'Waiting for the B Train' and '*69' tell humorous stories. 'Waiting for the B Train' is hilarious - about people standing at the subway when someone thinks they see a puppy on the track and trying to get someone to go get it.

5.0 out of 5 stars Another gem, December 9, 1999

By A Customer

Christine Lavin's albums always are full of astute observations on the challenges and absurdities life throws at us. This album is no exception. She mixes humor and angst with a deft touch and produces a great album!