Jackson Browne

As our finest practicing romantic, Jackson Browne has been stuck inside of Mobile with the
Memphis blues again for so long that the road probably looks like a realistic way of life to
him. Whether or not he knows it, he's been writing about highways and their alternate
routes since his beginnings, so the subject matter and thematic concerns of Running on
Empty aren't all that different from those of his first four LPs. But the approach is... More >

Out of the studio--this was recorded on tour--Jackson sounds relaxed verbally, vocally, even instrumentally. He cuts his own meager melodies with nice ones by Danny O'Keefe and Danny Kortchmar. He does a funny and far from uncritical version of "Cocaine" and a loving and far from unfunny version of "Stay." I consider this his most attractive album. But his devotees may consider the self-effacement a deprivation. (Grade: B+)