Once again, Zevon teamed up with friends and colleagues to produce some fine pop rock. And talking to different people over the years I've noted a number of times that I thought that one was my personal favorite.Excitable Boy was Warren Zevon’s follow up to his self-titled 1976 album which established Zevon as a rising talent in the Los Angeles singer/songwriter community. ![]() ![]() "Sentimental Hygiene" was close, and a fine album, but it wasn't as good as "The Envoy". The more recent 4 Williams albums, and the 8 (over a half dozen I know) later period Zevon albums are all good to very good certainly, and they contain great moments, but for me none of those albums by either artists compare with their first four albums. Starting with "Happy Woman Blues" & "Warren Zevon" each explodes out of the gates.and the first four albums by each (ends with "Car Wheels On A Gravel Road" for Williams & "The Envoy" for Zevon) truly rate as stellar works for me.even moreso for Williams actually, but both are great. For whatever reasons his career for me works a whole lot like Lucinda Williams.īoth their debuts ("Wanted Dead Or Alive" & "Ramblin'") come off as afterthoughts that really don't even count. Later albums like Life'll Kill Ya probably have stronger writing, cut for cut, but the studio resources he had for The Envoy put it over the top, for me. On the other hand, despite all the meticulous arranging and soundscaping, IMO the best cut on the album, perhaps my favorite zevon tune, is "Ain't That Pretty At All," which sounds as if it was written out of a wild jam and is, like the best of zevon, hilarious and cutting at the same time.Īnyway, I'm not dedicated to this opinion, but I just feel that this overlooked album is as strong as anything he ever did. It's somewhat of a forced rocker, like BLSIDS's "A Certain Girl," and just kind of unpleasant, which I guess, like "Charlie's Medicine," is part of the point of the hard-boiled, noirish lyrics. Really, the only cut on The Envoy that doesn't work is the second one, "The Overdraft," which he co-wrote with the novelist Tom McGuane and probably wanted to highlight. Some decent songs on Bad Luck Streak start off well but fall flat or go in predictable directions ("Bed of Coals," "Wild Age"). But aside from Bad Luck Streak's intriguing classical interludes, I find the writing just to be stronger on The Envoy, and the performances more controlled, especially in warren's vocals-I'm still not crazy about the straight ballad "Never Too Late for Love," but I find Bad Luck Streak's equivalent ("Empty-Handed Heart") almost unlistenable. The Envoy is really very similar to the previous studio album, Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School, in its song-by-song pacing (and they're both a bit short) and variations. But on The Envoy, unlike EB, the slighter songs like "Jesus Mentioned" are wonderful and contrast nicely with the intensity of the set-piece cuts like the title track and "Looking for the Next Best Thing." Literally-one knock against both The Envoy and other fine albums like Excitable Boy is that they have some obvious filler and lack another quality cut or two to really make an album for the ages. Part of what I'm saying is that as talented as zevon was, most of his albums come up a bit short. Plus classics like "Mohammed's Radio" and "I'll Sleep When I'm Dead" are better IMO on the great live record, Stand in the Fire. ![]() I just don't like "Hasten Down the Wind," not too crazy about "The French Inhaler," and I feel that the essential Zevon emerged with his more grizzled voice. The S/T 1976 "debut" is often considered his masterpiece, but it's kind of sensitive/singer-songwritery for my tastes. But he was to be very disappointed in the sales performance and go on a long bender, before returning to do mostly solo acoustic shows in the mid-'80s (which were often brilliant), until an industry-supported comeback with SH.īut not only do I think The Envoy's a fine album, I think it may be overall his best LP-consistent with the polished studio sound of his early years, but with a harder edge to the songwriting, a more innovative use of synthesizers, and variety in the arrangements. ![]() Apparently, zevon really labored to make The Envoy a strong record, after declining sales and mixed reviews since Excitable Boy and "Werewolves." The work shows: it's to me a beautifully recorded and arranged set of songs. I guess I assumed that it was a failure or misstep, considering that one of his several prolonged absences took place after this album, with 5 years between it and Sentimental Hygiene. I've been a huge zevon fan since the late '80s, but it took me a while to pick up The Envoy.
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