Album III / Attempted Mustache / Unrequited

If you are a LWIII fan but have never heard these three albums from the early seventies, the first things you'll notice are that his voice sounds a pitch or two higher and all the songs seem very short. This was the young Loudon, still moving through the gears before he settled on his more mature/assured writing style in the eighties. All three albums are a little patchy but all feature many moments of brilliance. The highlight is the sequence of seven live tracks toward the end of CD2 which comprised side two of 'Unrequited'. For many listeners in the UK (me included) this was the first glimpse of what a captivating live performer Loudon was - and still is. Loudon's favourite subject matter - himself, his family, his relationships - was beginning to take shape and here, a full seventeen years before 'A Father And A Son', he was already singing to and about Rufus as a baby ('RIATM', 'Lullaby') and even prior to that in utero ('Dilated To Meet You').Elsewhere some tracks inevitably now sound dated, mostly because of the soft-rock arrangements and over-production which were prevalent in American music at the time. That's one of the reasons why Loudon's (unaccompanied) session versions of some of these songs recorded for the BBC in London - many of which are still gathering dust unreleased - now sound superior. But I'm not going to start banging that BBC sessions drum yet again.This repackage comes with informed sleeve notes (although you may need a microscope to read them) and three extra tracks which were not on the original 'Unrequited' but were on the 1998 Columbia re-release, including the angst-ridden 'Hollywood Hopeful' and beautiful duet with first wife Kate, 'Over The Hill', the lyrics of which are given added poignancy by her sad passing last year [ "...who'd have thought it could go so fast, but it certainly did" ].One other point to note is that the track which appears here as 'The Untitled' is the same as was included on the recent '40 Odd Years' box set as 'Hardy Boys At The Y'. The proper title couldn't be used on the original release for copyright reasons.Playing these CDs was probably the first time for twenty years I had listened to the three LPs in their entirety and without interruption. All told, in a quick reckoning of the 41 tracks I counted 7 damp squibs, 18 good eggs and 16 five-star LWIII gems. Here in the UK this set was released at nine pounds (around $13) so at that price we certainly couldn't complain!For more about each of the albums I recommend the buyer reviews on Amazon.com. And if you like a laugh don't miss the absurd official Amazon review of 'Unrequited', written by Billy Altman, which describes Loudon as sounding "woefully adrift". Talk about missing the point! Or perhaps it was just a momentary sense-of-humor malfunction.

For those of us who collected Loudon Wainwright albums on LP this is a very good way to update them to CD. Loudon Wainwright is an idiosyncratic artist who writes clever songs with a mixture of pathos and humour. Not to everyone's taste, but some will love these songs. You could always start with the Swimming Song, that should appeal to most.3 Albums for the price of a single CD, great value.

Not as good as some of his later albums

What a talent!

Some slightly different songs here but nevertheless an interesting recording from an interesting performer

This was a Christmas gift to my husband, incorporating some of the music we used to listen to when we was a-courting. He loved it!