James Taylor - One Man Dog (2013) [Hi-Res]

A lot was riding on this album, James Taylor's followup to his two big hits, Sweet Baby James and Mud Slide Slim and The Blue Horizon, which was released 21 months after the latter, a long time between records in those days. And what a letdown. One Man Dog contained 18 tracks, some of them instrumentals, many of them running less than two minutes. A lot of it was sketchy and seemingly unfinished, and none of it had the impact of the best songs on the last two albums. One Man Dog spawned a Top 20 hit in "Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight," and it made the Top 10 and went gold itself largely on the momentum of Taylor's career. But it disappointed fans, and in the 19 months it took him to record another album, Taylor was bypassed by the singer-songwriter movement, becoming more of an easy listening covers artist (his next hits were remakes of "Mockingbird" and "How Sweet It Is"). ~ William Ruhlmann