Loudon Wainwright III

Loudon Wainwright III recorded two albums for Arista Records in the mid- to late '70s, where he seemed like a curious fit at a label dominated by the likes of Barry Manilow and the Bay City Rollers; the two albums he cut for them quickly came and went and have long been out of print. Wainwright's fans will be glad to know that the British Acadia label has finally made 1976's T Shirt and 1978's Final Exam available on CD in this two-disc set, though in some respects the albums fall into the category of noble experiments rather than roaring creative successes. Wainwright is backed by the band Slowtrain on both albums, and T Shirt is a rousing but sometimes ungainly attempt to make a rock & roll album around Wainwright; he sounds like he's having fun on tunes like "California Prison Blues" and "Bicentennial," and he dives into the dirty-mined disco of "At Both Ends" with relish. But significantly, T Shirt is dominated by booze more than rock & roll, thanks to the moody "Prince Hal's Dirge" and the raucous two-part singalong "Wine with Dinner," and the more subtle numbers like "Hollywood Hopeful" and "Talking Big Apple '75" are where he fits most comfortably. Wainwright and Slowtrain sound considerably more accustomed to one another on Final Exam, and the tale of two weeks in Alcoholics Anonymous, "Heaven and Mud," suggests that they were also trying to taper off on their boozing, though not with tremendous enthusiasm. Wainwright and his pals make with the rock on the title cut, "Natural Disaster" and the wicked closer "Watch Me Rock, I'm Over Thirty," but the real high points are once again the simpler numbers, especially "Mr. Guilty" and "The Heckler." Neither album is helped much by Acadia's remastering, which sometimes sounds harsh and distorted, though Wainwright's hilarious liner notes add value to a package that, despite its flaws, will certainly be welcomed by completists. ~ Mark Deming, All Music Guide