This is Jackson Browne’s first studio album since 2002’s ,Naked Ride Home and sees him revisit the political and social concerns that exercised him in the ‘80s, while giving them an added personal twist.
This is most obvious on the bleak title track, where the tick-tock ravages of time are reflected in the lyrics and in the music. ‘Off Of Wonderland’ is a rueful search for the lost idealism of former days, with references to the deaths of Robert Kennedy and MLK. ‘The Arms of Night’ is a bland love song, but Browne boogies it up on the 9-minute ‘Where Were You’ in which he castigates Bush for screwing New Orleans. Wubbya gets another drubbing in ‘The Drums of War’ (,“Who are they who bear the cost when a country takes the low road to war?”). The most endearing tune is the autobiographical and Latin-hued ‘Goin’ Down to Cuba’, while ‘Live Nude Cabaret’ sees Browne reflect on strip clubs, and ‘Just Say Yeah’ is about a female neighbour.
While most may sympathise with Browne’s observations, he adds little to familiar arguments already aired. It would easier to soak it all up if he had come up with a couple of fresh tunes to match his predictably worthy overview of human folly.