Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Another Masterpiece, September 25, 2001
Since 1986s "More Love Songs," Wainwright has released album after album filled with heartbreaking and hilarious songs of love, hate, parenthood, politics and mortality. So, while some are proclaiming "Last Man on Earth" his finest moment, I'll just say it's another in a long line of brilliant works. Though the album is devoid of the kind of humorous novelty songs that tend to pop up on his records -- appropriate since it largely focuses on his response to his mother's death and his own sense of encroaching mortality -- Wainwright's observations continue to mix wit with pathos. And he's pared things down musically and lyrically, with only two songs clocking in at more than four minutes. But who needs more time when he can reel off a brilliant songs like "I'm Not Gonna Cry" and "Donations" in barely two? The album is highly unlikely to change Wainwright's status as a "cult" figure, another in a long line of sadly underrated and unappreciated modern American songwriters. But it's a cult that anyone who appreciates smart and funny music that matters should be a part of.
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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
25 years and still never ceasing to be amazed, September 28, 2001
I have been a fan of LWIII since I caught his act completely by accident on Saturday Night Live during their first year in 1975. I ran out the next day and bought an album called "T-Shirt" still unavailable on CD today, with such great songs as "Summer's Almost Over" and "New York City Blues" or some title like that (he sang that on SNL). In the last 25(6) years I have faithfully been a LWIII fan, even seeing him live three times (if it was 1,000 times it would have been fine also..saw him once in VT. with about 50 people in audience..sigh...what the whole world was missng.) Making me laugh and cry, and growing up a few years behind him agewise, but going through sooo many of the personal things he has experienced, mostly love and loss of it, through events unknown or personal arrognace, death of parents, families and even hockey. I have been as an apostle turning on new converts to this most wonderful of songwriters who can make you laugh hysterically and then turn on your tears. Now "Last Man On Earth" which is an extension of the brilliance..almost never written as Loudo explains himself in liner notes. If he didn't have a guitar and a gift of words, he may well have killed himself. As one review here says, there isn't one of his classic humorous songs, but I strongly disagree, the title cut may just well be one of the funniest songs he's ever written. Remember that sarcasm underlines all of his funniest works. Many songs for his mom, who was the inspiration, touching lightly on an incestual note in the very end of "White Winos" of you listen. (He was never scared to go anywhere with his words.) I have been many places LWII has been, but I never had the guts to expose them to the world as he does. If this is the last album Loudo ever makes (and God, I hope it isn't) we will all go peacefully and still listen to those who say .."hey, isn't that the gut who wrote Dead Skunk, with a smile on our faces as we think of all the lessons he helped us laugh and accept....evetyone, buy this CD<
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
laughing through the tears..., November 24, 2001
First of all, this is easily one of Loudon Wainwright's most consistently listenable albums. If you are looking for a first LWIII album, this would be a good start. It eschews the utter bizarreness of his early albums like "Attempted Moustache" (my personal fav) and "Unrequited" in favor of fairly straight-ahead folk-rock stylings, placing the emphasis squarely on the lyrics. The lyrics and overall quality of the tunes is why I'd give this record the nod over his similar and more recent albums.Loudon is one of those songwriters that is deftly able to shatter his listeners hearts, but not by spilling his guts in your lap. In fact, what makes the saddest of these songs so damn sad is the fact that he's grumbling, joking, complaining and pontificating as a transparent way to conceal his pain. He might remind one of John Prine in this sense. Or, of some favorite bear-like uncle who would drink half a bottle of scotch at Thanksgiving, sing "Danny Boy" and wind up crying in the backyard at 3:00AM. In other words, he's a loveable, difficult old codger intent on keeping up his wall of manliness, but isn't always able to do it. Highlights? Where to start. The bob-and-weave balladry of "White Winos" a touching ode to his late mother that hints at a strangled labyrinth of family secrets. "Surviving Twin", a devestating rumination about his father that makes Bruce Springsteens "Walk Like A Man" sound downright slight... of course, the truly hilarious title track is wonderful, and even in it's silliness, crushes us with the pendulum of mortality: "Existence is no picnic as statsistics all have shown/We learn to live together and then we die alone." I can't gush enough about this album. I love Loudon's
"voices" both singing and poetic... he's a tough-guy folkie... the last man on earth!
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