John Prine

After eight albums on two major labels, John Prine has gone the route of many a fine
though commercially marginal singer/songwriter and released an album on his own
independent label. It's a treat. Though perhaps it lacks the instant standards like "Hello in
There" and "Sam Stone," which made Prine's debut album so startling, Aimless Love is a
friendly, human-sized collection of typically low-tech country-folk tunes. Prine'... More >

Prine's reappearance on his own label suggests that the reasons for his absence were more corporate than personal. The songs suggest that he's not reading True Love on the back cover for solace or satire. Only "The Bottomless Lake," copyrighted in 1977, falls into his wild-ass whimsy mode, and only the musically retiring "Maureen, Maureen" gets any more acerbic than that. (Grade: B+)