Details
Track Listing
INCLUDES:
1. I Was In The House When The House Burned Down
2. Life'll Kill Ya
3. Porcelain Monkey
4. For My Next Trick I'll Need A Volunteer
5. I'll Slow You Down
6. Hostage-O
7. Dirty Little Religion
8. Back In The High Life Again
9. My Shit's Fucked Up
10. Fistful Of Rain
11. Ourselves To Know
12. Don't Let Us Get Sick
Album Notes
Personnel: Warren Zevon (vocals, guitar, piccolo, pennywhistle, keyboards, percussion, Theremin); Jorge Calderon (vocals, bass, percussion); Babi Floyd, Dennis Collins, Curtis King (vocals); Chuck Prophet (guitar); Jimmy Ryan (mandolin); Winston Watson (drums, percussion).
Recorded at Anatomy Of A Headache, Los Angeles, California; Ft. Apache, Cambridge, Massachusettes; The Magic Shop, New York, New York.
Life hasn't killed Zevon just yet, though it's probably come damn close. Like Hunter S. Thompson, he's made a career of dangling over the edge while gleefully describing the perilous view. Such scrapes with doom have informed LIFE'LL KILL YA's sensibility, and Zevon responds with trademark gallows humor as well as a surprisingly lighter touch. The excitable, piano-pounding Zevon has surrounded himself with acoustic guitars, harmonicas, and pennywhistles. Conscise simplicity is the order of the day and the sense of economy allows lines like "I can see me bound and gagged / Dragged behind the clown mobile" some breathing room. The arguable red herring is a bizarrely straight reading of Steve Winwood's mid-'80s hit "Back in the High Life." Ironically, the album's most gripping aspect is its very modesty and lack of clutter. Apparently when the reaper is looming nearby, it's best to travel light.
Industry Reviews
3.5 stars out of 5 - ...morbidly engrossing....[It] seesaws between gallows humor and hopeful yearning, with the balance tilting towards the former...
Rolling Stone (02/17/2000)
4 stars out of 5 - ...a quality record packed with ironic, sarcastic, nakedly emotional, funny and gut-wrenching songs....business as usual, but, God, he's good at it...
Q (02/01/2000)
...one of the '70s most gifted musicians has pulled off a CD that resonates with the quizzical poignancy of midlife survival while harking back to his delectably deranged EXCITABLE BOY heyday... - Rating: A-
Entertainment Weekly (01/28/2000)
...his wryness and acuity...recall Randy Newman, though with less winsome, more militaristic melodies and a savage, pugilistic vocal...
Mojo (02/01/2000)
...arguably his best collection of new material since 1978's EXCITABLE BOY....[his] dry, twisted voice is accompanied by rock instrumentation that is appropriately sparse....The poetic irony of songs such as the title track...ring through with well-deserved clarity.
CMJ (01/24/2000)
...With LIFE'LL KILL YA, Zevon...assemble[s] 12 thoughtful, often caustically funny, always intimately felt songs....[he] varies pitch between rumbling basso and expressively strained falsetto, yet his overall tone remains steady...
No Depression (03/01/2000)
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