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Songs from this album are available to purchase as MP3s. Click on "Buy MP3" or
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
i first heard this on john peel, i had to buy it, i fell in love with loudon, bought his new releases religiously for years, followed his tours and so on. I still think this album, his first, is my favourite. It has a beautiful production sound that sounds fresh to this day, it contains some brilliant songs, school days, four is a magic number, hospital lady, i don't care. The epic Central Square Song. The man was a lyrical genius. He is probably best known nowadays for "the man who couldn't cry", brilliantly covered by Johnny Cash on american recordings. i'd recommend all of Loudon's first four albums in particular, they are all forgotten classics in my opinion, but number one remains the freshest and most original for me.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Great album if you're into singer/songwriters from the 60/70's. It's melancholy and introspective without taking itself too seriously. However, if you're going to buy only one Loudon Wainwright album from his early years, then I reckon Album 2 is better.
Format:Audio CD
If I`d had to rate this debut from Loudon Wainwright III forty years ago when I first bought it on LP, I`d have instantly given it a full five stars. Listening to it again - on CD, and not the worse for cider in a bedsit - I`m surprised at its serious, often subdued quality, as if the old joker was on his best behaviour. Having read the new sleevenotes, he probably was. This was a hard-won record deal and he wanted it to work, without frightening too many horses.
Everyone who knows and loves Loudon remembers the opener School Days:
"In Delaware, when I was younger
I would row upon the lake.
And in the spring I had great hunger,
I was Keats, I was Blake"
It`s a wordy - "blaspheming booted blue-jeaned baby boy" - paeon to the idealism of youth and one of his most potent early songs.
Here I must say that, on the occasions I`ve seen him live, Loudon is the single most entertaining solo singer I`ve ever seen. Over the years his humour has broadened and his irreverance given its full rein. He is, quite frankly, hilarious. He can also, almost uniquely, have you laughing & crying not only in the space of a song, but sometimes in the same line of that song.
His debut is full of both wit & humour, not to mention the young Loudon in fine voice, but there`s something lacking. A warmth, a variety of mood, relaxed vocal and musical textures, all of which began to be heard on "Album II" - and then there was no stopping him.
Eleven songs, all good, all worth hearing, and the longtime Wainwright fan will cherish this callow early record as much as any of his later albums (try History or More Love Songs or the live Career Moves for LW at his best) but I can`t say I`d play this one often any more, it isn`t for all moods. There`s a (not unpleasing) bleakness to it that doesn`t do the Loudon we`ve come to know full justice - but, hey, this was a sophomore effort, and as such is damn good in its own right.
The uptempo Uptown comes halfway through, and is most welcome...
"Help me baby hail a taxi-cab,
You and me are goin` uptown"
Everyone who knows and loves Loudon remembers the opener School Days:
"In Delaware, when I was younger
I would row upon the lake.
And in the spring I had great hunger,
I was Keats, I was Blake"
It`s a wordy - "blaspheming booted blue-jeaned baby boy" - paeon to the idealism of youth and one of his most potent early songs.
Here I must say that, on the occasions I`ve seen him live, Loudon is the single most entertaining solo singer I`ve ever seen. Over the years his humour has broadened and his irreverance given its full rein. He is, quite frankly, hilarious. He can also, almost uniquely, have you laughing & crying not only in the space of a song, but sometimes in the same line of that song.
His debut is full of both wit & humour, not to mention the young Loudon in fine voice, but there`s something lacking. A warmth, a variety of mood, relaxed vocal and musical textures, all of which began to be heard on "Album II" - and then there was no stopping him.
Eleven songs, all good, all worth hearing, and the longtime Wainwright fan will cherish this callow early record as much as any of his later albums (try History or More Love Songs or the live Career Moves for LW at his best) but I can`t say I`d play this one often any more, it isn`t for all moods. There`s a (not unpleasing) bleakness to it that doesn`t do the Loudon we`ve come to know full justice - but, hey, this was a sophomore effort, and as such is damn good in its own right.
The uptempo Uptown comes halfway through, and is most welcome...
"Help me baby hail a taxi-cab,
You and me are goin` uptown"
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