John Prine

With its scathing, sardonic lyrics, Sweet Revenge is an apt title for Prine's third LP, which also sports warm, twangy production that recalls country rock's heyday (it was recorded in '73). The title track rolls with roadhouse piano and soulful backup singers, while "Blue Umbrella" softly gallops with subtle Spanish-styled lead guitar licks and gripping narratives.

Sweet Revenge is another side of John Prine, a departure from the nearly unrelenting
somberness of his earlier work, and an engaging picture of the social being beneath the
social conscience. It's a more human work, more mature, and a step forward artistically
and toward a wider audience. Its folk humor ("Please Don't Bury Me") rivals any anonymous
classic, while it is at the same time too distinctive to have been written by anyon... More >

Prine is described as surrealistic and/or political even though the passion of his literalness is matched only by that of his detachment: inferential leaps and tall songs do not a dreamscape make, and Prine offers neither program nor protest. It's the odd actions of everyday detail--as in the "four way stop dilemma" of "The Accident"--that heighten the reality of his songs, and his elementary insight that social circumstances do actually affect individual American lives that distinguishes him politically from his fellow workers. That's why when he finally writes his music-biz takeoff it's a beaut; that's why "Christmas in Prison" deserves to be carved on a wooden turkey. (Grade - A)