Zevon

Erik writes to ask what somebody who owns Excitable Boy but is interested in branching out a bit should purchase, and if that’s not a topic for this blog, what is?

To start with, there are two pretty well-selected Rhino best-ofs, the two-CD I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead and the single-CD Genius. The 2-CD one is, I think, more than worth the extra 6 bucks if you’ve heard enough to think you’ll like him, but they’re both pretty exceptional.  The older best-of is also pretty good; it has the advatange of including two first-rate songs (“Mohammed’s Radio” and “Ain’t That Pretty At All”) whose studio versions are inexplicably absent from the newer ones, but has the disadvantages of stopping earlier and omitting the punchline of “Lawyers, Guns and Money.” If you opt for the single, after the must-own Warren Zevon your next buy should probably be the R.E.M-backed Sentimental Hygiene, which is very well-represented on the double. Ditto with the terrific Mr. Bad Example, which would also be a good starting point if you find it cheap. Also, although it’s fans-only I kinda like the outtakes from the R.E.M. sessions, which were released as Hindu Love Gods. From there, I would check out one or two of his post-1991 albums, all of which are very strong. My order of preference would be Mutineer (lo-fi, slow-paced; probably not ideal for newbies); My Ride’s Here (starts weakly but peaks highest of the 4, also the hardest-rocking), Life’ll Kill Ya (tuneful, consistent, accessible, lacks a truly killer track), The Wind (most popular; I don’t think it’s quite as good as its three predecessors, but context matters, and beautiful at its best.)

One problem with this, of course, is that I’m a big fan, so it’s hard for me to advise a more neutral party. (I play even the proggish Transverse City quite a bit.) There’s not a lot of criticism online, alas, so I guess that’s what comment sections are for. Robert Christgau‘s evaluations are reasonable; obviously, I would peg them a notch or two higher. (Unfortunately, the utility of his most important insight–that The Envoy is one of his very best–is mitigated by the fact that it’s out of print.) I also play the uneven live-acoustic Learning to Flinch a fair bit, but it’s not a good starting point. The bottom line is that he never made a bad record and he never made a flawless record, so if you like what you’ve heard you can pick up anything that sounds good to you without too much risk.