Never trust an artist's opinion on his own recordings. calls the "best recording [he] ever made," ignoring a decade worth of great, innovative . A better assessment may be: is the most direct record he's ever made. If you just want , stripped of all the odd time signatures, subverted chord progressions, cryptic lyrics, and sonic experimentation that marked his first two albums, as well as his work with , this album may satisfy your needs. Then again, all those "frills" were part of the reason was such a respected and influential artist, and without them he sounds disturbingly conventional. Fortunately, doesn't trade in the sub- cliches that plagued , concentrating on straight-ahead . There are some good hooks on the songs and the performances have some real energy, but all the songs wind up blending into each other by the end of the record. On the whole, it's a step forward from , but it still feels like a retreat from his entire body of work. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine