Buffett's 'Weather' isn't all breezy
``Good taste" and ``Jimmy Buffett" are not usually phrases used in the same sentence.
Sure, he's written and performed a gaggle of well-crafted tunes in the singer-songwriter tradition over his nearly 40-year career. But generally speaking, Buffett seems at peace with being the slacker king of margaritas and sunsets whose fans flock to his party-hearty shows to shake off their workday stresses and wriggle into their coconut bras.
On his smarter-than-your-average-beach-bum new release, ``Take the Weather With You," Buffett reminds everyone -- perhaps even himself -- that smarts and fun are not mutually exclusive. The 59-year-old Florida denizen spikes the rum punch with thoughtfulness both by choosing impeccable songwriters to cover and punching up his own contributions beyond goofy puns and tiki bar tall tales.
Parrotheads needn't fear that they have to replace their fins with thinking caps, however. The good times still roll on ``Weather," and right from the start with ``Bama Breeze." The loving ode is written by others but is seemingly a good fit for Buffett, who reminisces about an old bar where everybody knew his name before anybody knew his name. It's catchy and fun, but also bittersweet, more ``A Pirate Looks at Forty" than ``Why Don't We Get Drunk."
But interestingly, on the most frivolous-sounding songs -- ``Party at the End of the World" and ``Everybody's on the Phone" -- the steel drums and tropical rhythms surround a tangy, sour- candy center, Buffett's commentary on war, natural disaster, and the isolating nature of digital technology.
Even with all its zany double- talk, ``Party," which chronicles a trip Buffett took way down south near Antarctica, is a nice illustration of how contemplating our troubles can go hand- in- hand with a seize-the-moment spirit.
Elsewhere Buffett simply makes intelligent choices, such as the spare blues-folk of Gillian Welch and David Rawlings's ``Elvis Presley Blues," Mary Gauthier's dark Dixie rumbler ``Wheel Inside the Wheel," Merle Haggard's ambling ``Silver Wings," and Mark Knopfler's torchy ballad ``Whoop De Doo," to which the Dire Straits guitarist lends a melancholy guitar sound.
Regrettably, Buffett feels the need to embellish some of these songs and seems unaware that steel drums are not an all-purpose enhancement technique. This nearly ruins the ruminative Crowded House song from which the album takes its title. (The otherwise sound CSN-like harmonies sung by Gomez are also oddly overenunciated.)
But as this particular pirate looks at 60, Buffett seems to have found a happy medium. ``Weather" represents a place where he can indulge his cross-genre loves -- country, blues, rock, Caribbean, pop, reggae -- entertain his blender-toting fans, and maybe say a little something in between sips.
