Jimmy Buffett: Changes In Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

The wry humor and carefully etched scenes that made Jimmy Buffett's A White Sport Coat and a Pink Crustacean so endearing have been slowly evaporating. What remains three albums later are the occasional clever line and a lot of self-pitying drinking songs. The only notable exception is the desperately sad "In the Shelter," the tale of a very lost young woman.

The drinking tunes, it should be added, probably work in live performance. One can get away with one-liner songs if the picking and mood are right. Here, however, Norbert Putnam's overwrought production and arrangements milk each number of its potential charm, emotion or, for that matter, shit-kicking impact. A few loose country licks would have been more in order than the strings and flutes provided.

There's a little more enthusiasm on the second side than on the first. But when it comes to this kind of laid-back (uptempo or down) drinking music, Jerry Jeff Walker'll play 'em all under the table any night.