It\u2019s been said that once someone hits the top of anything they strive to achieve, there\u2019s only one way to go\u2014and that\u2019s down.<\/p>\n
Coming off of the masterpiece that was Dance Band On The Titanic<\/i>, Harry Chapin had a tough task ahead of him. Granted, the album hadn\u2019t spawned any chart successes like \u201cCat\u2019s In The Cradle,\u201d but what was he going to be able to offer as a follow-up?<\/p>\n
The answer: 1978\u2019s Living Room Suite<\/i>\u2014an album that Chapin was allegedly dissatisfied with, wishing he had been given more time to polish things. And, one can\u2019t say that he was wrong. It\u2019s not a terrible effort, but it is a significant step down.<\/p>\n
The album\u2019s best-known track is one of the biggest heart-breaking songs I\u2019ve ever heard, \u201cFlowers Are Red.\u201d A song that encapsulates how a young child\u2019s imagination can be completely demolished so that they conform with contrived standards, it\u2019s one that defies you to not get angry at the teacher admonishing the little boy in the song. It\u2019s painful to listen to, in that it rings far too true with many people\u2014but Chapin had the knack of capturing humanity, flaws and all, throughout his career.<\/p>\n
If Living Room Suite<\/i> had more songs like \u201cFlowers Are Red,\u201d \u201cDancin\u2019 Boy\u201d and \u201cWhy Do Little Girls,\u201d there is a strong possibility that this disc could have challenged Dance Band On The Titanic<\/i> for being\u2014at least on my scorecard\u2014the best album he ever recorded. Unfortunately, the remaining six tracks fail to live up to that potential\u2014and while they\u2019re not bad by any means, they don\u2019t hold a candle to the stronger material.<\/p>\n
Chapin\u2019s voice had begun to take on a rougher timbre with the constant pattern of recording and touring, and this disc shows that wear and tear a little more. In terms of the songwriting, sometimes it feels like Chapin is beginning to run on fumes, with fewer moments of genius that made up a good portion of his career. Tracks like \u201cJenny,\u201d \u201cPoor Damned Fool\u201d and \u201cSomebody Said\u201d might have been standout efforts on earlier albums, but this time around, it almost feels like Chapin is tired and needed some time to regroup his songwriting efforts to come up the strongest material he could have.<\/p>\n
The thing is, Living Room Suite<\/i> has moments of potential within it. Chapin had released weaker efforts in his career, and this still stood above a couple of those. But with each passing record, fans knew what Chapin was capable of\u2014and this feels like an unfulfilled, incomplete effort. It\u2019s still worth checking out, as long as one cushions their expectations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35225,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6164],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-47109","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-harry-chapin","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/47109","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/47109\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=47109"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=47109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}