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Low Budget [Bonus Track] [SHM]
Barnes and Noble
Low Budget [Bonus Track] [SHM]
Current price: $17.99
Barnes and Noble
Low Budget [Bonus Track] [SHM]
Current price: $17.99
Size: OS
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doesn't have a narrative like
or
, but
cleverly designed the album as a sly satire of the recession and oil crisis that gripped America in the late '70s -- thereby satisfying his need to be a wry social commentator while giving American audiences a hook to identify with. It was a clever move that worked; not only did
become their highest-charting American album (not counting the 1966
compilation), but it was also a fine set of
, one of the better mainstream
albums of its time. And it certainly was of its time -- so much so that many of the concerns and production techniques have dated quite a bit in the decades since its initial release. Nevertheless, that gives the album a certain charm, since it now plays like a time capsule, a snapshot of what
sounded like at the close of the '70s. Perhaps not so coincidentally,
' songwriting fluctuates throughout the album, since it's dictated as much by commercial as artistic concerns, but the moments when he manages to balance the two impulses -- as on the
-fueled
the vaudevillian
the roaring
(possibly their best hard rocker of the era, by the way), and
where
takes on the persona of America itself -- are irresistible.
may not have the depth of, say,
, but it's a terrifically entertaining testament to their skills as a professional
band and
' savvy as a commercial songwriter. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine