Rating: 5/5
Review:
A very fine LWIII album
I think this is one of Loudon Wainwright's very best albums - which for me is really saying something. I have been a fan since hearing him play "School Days" on the BBC over 40 years ago and rushing out to buy Album I. He has never made an out-and-out bad album, in my view, but not all have been great. This one is.
Wainwright is musing on past life, aging and death here with the insight, the excoriating self-examination and the wit which have marked his work from the very beginning. The music is still relatively simple, generally tuneful and always very listenable. The songs range from the genuinely hilarious My Meds and the funny but poignant I Remember Sex (a duet with Dame Edna Everidge) to the lovely and tender In C and the exceptionally moving Somebody Else. All are songs with genuine heart and real musical content, even when the music is used to light-hearted effect. His four children (Rufus and Martha included) appear at various points on the album and the overall effect is emotional and moving with quite a few laughs along the way.
I have had a long, long affection for Loudon Wainwright and this has only increased it, which I cannot say for all his work. I warmly recommend this album.
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