Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy.<\/p>\n
The plain fact is, the man from Margaritaville is now so accomplished a businessman that the very thing that got his empire started — making music — has become almost a footnote.\u00a0 Restaurants, merchandising, books, Broadway musicals — not to mention, flying, sailing, longboarding and doing movie cameos — take up so much space that it\u2019s a wonder the man still has time to tour, let alone record the occasional new studio album.<\/p>\n
In recent years this has been somewhat of a blessing, as Buffett has seemed content for the past decade to rest on his laurels musically and simply rewrite his own back catalogue.\u00a0 And indeed, after a brief (and profitable) detour to his sometime country roots in 2004\u2019s License To Chill<\/i>, Buffett\u2019s barefoot-by-the-beach attitude and That in itself guarantees at least a guilty pleasure of an album — Jimmy is too charming and carefree a host ever to fail to at least entertain — but is there any meat on these bones?\u00a0 The answer comes back mixed and muddled.<\/p>\n \u201cBama Breeze\u201d and \u201cParty At The End Of The World\u201d open things up in full-on party mode, the former offering an appealing ode to a homey Southern bar, the latter a salsa-fied party anthem that shoots for escapism but betrays a kind of fatalistic ennui instead, as in, we\u2019re all screwed anyway, so pass the margaritas.\u00a0 Buffett also goes for the laughs with \u201cEverybody\u2019s On The Phone,\u201d but both the all-too-obvious cellular-madness gags and Buffett\u2019s attempts to build a flow over the chugging boogie rhythm fall flat.<\/p>\n The highlights, counter-intuitively, come when Buffett gets serious.\u00a0 The title track surprises you first with the simple fact Jimmy is covering Crowded House, and secondly with how strong a cover it is.\u00a0 Here Buffett actually sings like he means it, rendering one of the Finn brothers\u2019 finer moments with all the keening sincerity it demands, while turning the song into one of his own.\u00a0 \u201cBreathe In, Breathe Out, Move On\u201d feels genuine and heartfelt as well, a contemplation on Beyond these two, the most intriguing number is \u201cWheel Inside The Wheel,\u201d a soul-searching tune about mortality and transcendence.\u00a0 The weakest part of the song is Buffett\u2019s flat reading of the opening verses, but as the chrouses pile one upon another and the momentum builds, Jimmy\u2019s vocals rise to the occasion.<\/p>\n Other strong moments include the lilting coming-of-middle-age number \u201cNothin\u2019 But A Breeze\u201d and the shimmering \u201cReggabilly Hill,\u201d embellished beautifully with steel drums and Unfortunately, once you get beyond this handful of solid tunes, there\u2019s an awful lot that feels more like Jimmy Inc.\u00a0filling time than Jimmy the artist spinning tales.\u00a0 The once-prolific songwriter delivers 10 covers out of 14 tunes, and the album is littered with languid throwaways like \u201cSilver Wings\u201d and \u201cDuke\u2019s On Sunday\u201d which suggest Buffett is going to be one content retiree before too long.<\/p>\n You can\u2019t expect a lot from a Buffett album these days — profound has rarely been his goal, and he\u2019s already worth more than he could ever hope to spend — but this disc is mediocre even in the face of lowered expectations.\u00a0 Die-hard Parrotheads won\u2019t have any trouble keeping the party going with this on in the background, but anyone else could easily pass.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":28563,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5930],"rating":[5614],"class_list":["post-40031","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-jimmy-buffett","rating-rating-c-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40031"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40031\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=40031"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=40031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}