Marshall Crenshaw - #447 (1999)

No one has had a bumpier career ride than Marshall Crenshaw. Hailed as the next big thing, by his second Warner Bros. album he was already yesterday's news, being fed to this producer and that producer in the company's quest for the big crossover hit. In the meantime, Crenshaw went through a severe case of writer's block, funneling what little did come out into movie soundtracks and a succession of disjointed albums that sold less and less with each release. He switched labels and finally found a good fit at the small independent Razor & Tie imprint. There, he's released three fine albums in a far more relaxed manner that hearken back to his earliest -- and arguably his best -- recordings. #447, Crenshaw's fourth release for Razor & Tie, stands tall as one of his finest albums, as well as his most ambitious and perhaps perfectly realized. The big news is the wealth of great original material, plus Crenshaw's newfound interest in guitar textures, giving this album a complex weave of interesting tones that literally leap out of the mix. He's also playing a lot more guitar than on his early sides, including three delightful instrumentals. His style shows him to be something of a cross between Kenny Burrell, Danny Gatton, and Grant Green. But with Crenshaw, the pop hook's the thing, and tunes like "Dime a Dozen Guy," "Television Light," "Glad Goodbye," and "Right There in Front of Me" do not disappoint. He hasn't sounded this confident and relaxed on a record in a long time, and this disc spotlights his talent in a way that makes you smile as you're singing along with a new song that you've never heard before -- perhaps the highest praise of all. For his longtime fans, this is Marshall Crenshaw firing on all four cylinders, doing what he does best.