Late for the Sky

by

Jackson Browne

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What do you say about an album you had to replace twice on vinyl before finally scoring a hit on a CD that is still with you? That this is likely the single best album he ever produced? That the song cycle, singing, and instrumentation here is what still distinguishes Browne as a singular singer/songwriter/artist from all the others? That you still smile every time you hear the last several lines, "Look, you're standing in the window/ Of a house nobody lives in/ And I'm sitting in a car across the way /Let's just say an early model Chevrolet/ You go pack your sorrows/ The trash man comes tomorrow / We'll throw 'em on the curb/ And then just sail away"

This best-selling album will sail on forever. From "Late For The Sky" to "Fountain of Sorrow" and all the rest of the wonderfully intimate, strikingly autobiographical, personal, and evocative songs he introduced to the waiting world with this album, this is one everyone should have in their CD collection. It is a cleverly innocent Technicolor snapshot picture taken on clear, cool Southern California night, just like the album cover. It is a faithful, memorable, and absolutely artistic reproduction of a moment in contemporary culture made by someone who has built a whole musical career by being the ultimate self-acknowledged dreamer and world-watcher. Spin it and enjoy. I still do.

Most fans laud this as Browne's masterpiece, but I'll take The Pretender instead, thank you very much. Like most of Jackson's other albums, this is a mellow soft-rock album that concerns death, suicide, loss of love and various other tragedies - there's even a bit more of the typical prophet o' doom stuff ("Before the Deluge", one of the highlights). Actually, there's a fairly long list of highlights, the best of course being the somber title track, one of Browne's precious few first-rank songs (for the record, "Before the Deluge" is another) - the ballad "For a Dancer" sports an enjoyable string part; "Fountain of Sorrow" is a bit long, but one of his better somber ballads, and "The Road Meets the Sky" is not only a rocker (surprise!), but a good one (even bigger surprise!). Sadly, the record overdoses on boring country-rock ("The Late Show"), and the other rocker, "Walking Slow", is a trying experience. Which means this, like Browne himself, is just average.