I'm Alright

by

Loudon Wainwright III

Edit

If LW3's albums of the '70s are uneven, his albums of the '80s are enlightening. In this album in particular, we get a taste of Loudon's range.

The opening tune is "One Man Guy". Loudon pokes fun at himself, at society, and ends with the sort of pathos that raises a gag-song to the level of classic.

It's a "folksy" tune, but it's followed on the album by a song that hearkens back to the '30s, by "the happy blues" of the title track, with the thrash rock of "How Old Are You?", the pre-school-ish "Animal Song", and the Dixieland Jazz "Daddy Take A Nap".

Looking over the list of songs, it's hard to say why this whole album doesn't get five stars. Any particular song would get a smile and raucous applause at a concert, but as a whole the album doesn't maintain the sort of emotional resonance and humor of the albums that would follow it.

But I'd guarantee that most intelligent listeners would find at least two or three songs on this album that they considered "indispensible".