Lyle Lovett: The Road To Ensenada : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

One of the great traditions in pop music is the breakup album, on which an established singer/songwriter recounts the dissolution of a marriage or love affair, often with enough gravity and pathos to fuel a tragic opera. After his widely publicized split from Julia Roberts, Lyle Lovett could have handily played on public sympathy by releasing such a maudlin opus. Instead, he gives us The Road to Ensenada, a laid-back charmer with all the quirky humor and wry wistfulness we've come to expect from this tall, cool Texan.

Even the more poignant moments on Ensenada are free of cloying sentimentality. On the pining, fiddle-laced "It Ought to Be Easier" and the hauntingly spare "Promises," Lovett's matter-of-fact vocals demonstrate the power of controlled anguish. And when Lovett's wit reveals itself, heartache can seem no more insurmountable than a bad hangover. "My John B. Stetson was my only friend," he assures us in "Don't Touch My Hat," "so ... you can have my girl." Provided she's not on location, that is.