Audio CD review:
Loudon Wainwright III - Unrequited (Legacy)

Loudon Wainwright III - Unrequited (Legacy)

Band: Loudon Wainwright III Title: Unrequited (Legacy) Rating: Release Date: 25 August, 1998 Media: Audio CD Tracks: 1: Sweet Nothings 2: The Lowly Tourist 3: Kings And Queens 4: Kick In The Head 5: Whatever Happened To Us 6: Crime Of Passion 7: Absence Makes The Heart Grow Fonder 8: On The Rocks 9: Guru 10: Mr. Guilty 11: The Untitled 12: Unrequited To The Nth Degree 13: Old Friend 14: Rufus Is A Tit Man 15: Rufus Is A Tit Man (Alternate Version) 16: Over The Hill 17: Hollywood Hopeful

Editoral Review Unfortunately, Wainwright's desire to have it both ways failed on virtually all levels. As Loudon Wainwright points out in notes to this reissue of what was his final album for Columbia, the battle plan was to make a half-studio, half-live LP, the latter being where critics and fans felt the singer-songwriter did his best work. Recorded in the mid-'70s as he was splitting from both his longtime manager and his wife (and then emerging performer) Kate McGarrigle, Wainwright sounds woefully adrift, especially on the genre-clashing studio tracks. The solo live cuts are a bit better, but psychosexual fantasies such as "The Untitled" (about an incest-filled visit to the YMCA by the Hardy Boys) and "Rufus Is a Tit Man" (about he and his then infant son co-breastfeeding) are about as unpleasant to hear as they are to describe. --Billy Altman .. You can see a complete list of all Loudon Wainwright III discography, or go back to the Loudon Wainwright III tabs