Warren Zevon - The Envoy (1982) (Remastered 2007)

While moderation was never Warren Zevon's strong suit, his efforts to clean himself up in the early '80s resulted in two of his finest albums, 1980's literate but corrosive Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School and the following year's explosive live set Stand in the Fire. It seemed as if the wired chaos of Zevon's personal life had been channeled into his art on those LPs, but after another bout with the bottle and another attempt at sobriety, Zevon tried another approach at merging his music and his life on 1982's The Envoy. On The Envoy's best songs, Zevon tackles his dangerous appetites head on; "Charlie's Medicine" is a chilling requiem for a drug dealer who used to sell him dope, "Jesus Mentioned" is a spare but curiously moving meditation on the death of Elvis Presley, who "went walking on the water with his pills," and the ragged but right " Ain't That Pretty at All" is an unlikely but powerful recovery anthem in which he howls "I'd rather feel bad than not feel anything at all." When Zevon confronts his own demons on The Envoy, the album is intense and compelling stuff, but unfortunately there aren't enough of these moments to prop up the rest of the set, which is smart and literate but not especially exciting. Novelist Thomas McGuane co-wrote "The Overdraft," a hard-charging rocker that unfortunately doesn't make much sense, while the languid "The Hula Hula Boys" plays like a joke in which the punch line got lost, and the two love songs, "Let Nothing Come Between You" and "Looking for the Next Best Thing," manage to sound at once heartfelt and like lesser variations on themes he'd covered with greater strength before. The Envoy would prove to be Zevon's last album for five years after he took another stumble into addiction, but while it's an often brave and ambitious disc, the high points don't quite redeem its weaknesses. [In 2007, Rhino Records gave The Envoy its belated debut on CD in a remastered and expanded edition featuring new liner notes from David Wild and four bonus tracks recorded during the album's original sessions. There's an alternate take of "Let Nothing Come Between You" with some alternate lyrics and a sloppy pass at the Troggs' "Wild Thing" that's fun but hardly revelatory. More interesting are "Word of Mouth," a taut and rhythmic instrumental, and "The Risk," which sounds like it wasn't quite finished but walks a provocative line between Zevon's tales of romance and self-destruction; it would have made a nice coda for the album, and is the one really essential new track on this edition.]...M. Deming

320 @
103 MB
2000mustangs

Tracklist

01 The Envoy 3:13
02 The Overdraft 2:44
03 The Hula Hula Boys 3:02
04 Jesus Mentioned 2:45
05 Let Nothing Come Between You 3:41
06 Ain't That Pretty at All 3:35
07 Charlie's Medicine 4:51
08 Looking for the Next Best Thing 3:4
09 Never Too Late for Love 4:46
10 Word of Mouth prev. unreleased / Bonus / Outtake 4:01
11 Let Nothing Come Between You prev. unreleased / Bonus / Alternate Take 3:40
12 The Risk prev. unreleased / Bonus / Outtake 2:34
13 Wild Thing prev. unreleased / Bonus / Outtake 2:29

Warren Zevon - Warren Zevon (1976) (2CD Collector's Edit 2008)

Warren Zevon - Warren Zevon (1976) (2CD Collector's Edit 2008)

Warren Zevon was a ten-year music industry veteran who had written songs for the Turtles, backed up Phil Everly, done years of session work and been befriended by Jackson Browne by the time he cut his self-titled album in 1976 (which wasn't his debut, though the less said about 1969's misbegotten Wanted Dead or Alive the better). Even though Warren Zevon was on good terms with L.A.'s Mellow Mafia, he sure didn't think (or write) like any of his pals in the Eagles or Fleetwood Mac; Zevon's music was full of blood, bile, and mean-spirited irony, and the glossy surfaces of Jackson Browne's production failed to disguise the bitter heart of the songs on Warren Zevon. The album opened with a jaunty celebration of a pair of Old West thieves and gunfighters ("Frank and Jesse James"), and went on to tell remarkable, slightly unnerving tales of ambitious pimps ("The French Inhaler"), lonesome junkies ("Carmelita"), wired, hard-living lunatics ("I'll Sleep When I'm Dead"), and truly dastardly womanizers ("Poor Poor Pitiful Me"), and even Zevon's celebrations of life in Los Angeles, long a staple of the soft rock genre, had both a menace and an epic sweep his contemporaries could never match ("Join Me in L.A." and "Desperados Under the Eaves"). But for all their darkness, Zevon's songs also possessed a steely intelligence, a winning wit, and an unusually sophisticated melodic sense, and he certainly made the most of the high-priced help who backed him on the album. Warren Zevon may not have been the songwriter's debut, but it was the album that confirmed he was a major talent, and it remains a black-hearted pop delight. [Rhino Records released a remastered and expanded version of Warren Zevon in late 2008, with the original album accompanied by a bonus disc of demos, alternate takes, and live performances. The early demos confirm that Zevon's creative vision was clearly in place long before he had the budget to make a "real" album, and the 1974 recording of "Carmelita" boasts an extra verse that didn't make it to its "official" recording. Otherwise, the alternate material is often rougher and less precise than what made the final cut, which sometimes works in its favor and occasionally does not, though even the weakest of the archival performances are intriguing -- especially when he invites a lady friend to "geeze some Octomol" during " Join Me in L.A." -- and Zevon is in fine voice. The remastered version of the original album sounds excellent -- clear enough that you can hear the workings of the piano's pedals on "Frank and Jesse James" -- and the new liner notes by Bob Mehr are smart and revealing. Warren Zevon still ranks with the artist's best and most lasting work, and this new edition treats it like the landmark it truly is.]... M. Deming

320 @
210 MB

Tracklist.

CD 1

01 Frank and Jesse James 4:33
02 Mama Couldn't Be Persuaded 2:53
03 Backs Turned Looking Down the Path 2:27
04 Hasten Down the Wind 2:58
05 Poor, Poor Pitiful Me 3:04
06 The French Inhaler 3:44
07 Mohammed's Radio 3:40
08 I'll Sleep When I'm Dead 2:56
09 Carmelita 3:32
10 Join Me in L.A. 3:13
11 Desperados Under the Eaves 4:45


CD 2 (Bonus)

01 Frank and Jesse James Solo Piano Demo 4:38
02 The French Inhaler Solo Piano Demo 3:23
03 Hasten Down the Wind Band Demo 2:49
04 Carmelita 1974 Demo 3:58
05 Mohammed's Radio Solo Piano Demo 2:52
06 Backs Turned Looking Down the Path Take 1 2:33
07 Join Me in L.A. Take 2 4:22
08 Poor Poor Pitiful Me Alternate Version 3:23
09 Frank and Jesse James Alternate Version 4:41
10 Mohammed's Radio Take 2 4:01
11 The French Inhaler Take 1 3:48
12 Carmelita Alternate Version 3:38
13 Desperados Under the Eaves Take 2 4:13
14 Mama Couldn't Be Persuaded Live 2:01
15 I'll Sleep When I'm Dead Alternate Version 3:06

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