Loudon Wainwright III - Here Come the Choppers (2005)

Folk's most engaging open wound, Loudon Wainwright III, returns with a dozen new tunes that range from the acerbic to the affecting to the profound. "My Biggest Fan," the album opener, skewers every well-meaning slob who fights his way backstage to prove his merit. "No Sure Way" takes a subway ride into an elegiac past. And "Hank and Fred" walks a circuitous path to link the great Hank Williams with Mr. Rogers. But as usual, Wainwright best burrows into the brain with songs of 3 a.m., head-holding pain, e.g., "Had to Be Her," in which he declares that "love is a lesion." Things get darker from there, believe it or not, and shrinks have labels for what most of these songs evoke. Wainwright, deftly and notably backed here by Bill Frisell on electric guitar and Greg Leisz on lap and pedal steel guitar, never bores, and he never disappoints. But buyer beware: The Prozac nation had best keep its distance. - Alanna Nash