Recovery : Loudon Wainwright III : Review : Rolling Stone

Having hired Loudon Wainwright III to compose a soundtrack for Knocked Up, director Judd Apatow is a stone fan of the singer-songwriter. On Recovery, which revisits material from Wainwright's nearly 40-year career, you can see why they get along. Like the filmmaker, Wainwright shows the male ego in all its needy, embarrassing glory; he's kind of like that naked dude in Forgetting Sarah Marshall. See "Motel Blues," a song Alex Chilton notably covered with Big Star. "I'll write a song for you, I'll put it on my next LP," Wainwright promises here, attempting to woo a young fan into bed; it's simultaneously pathetic, funny and tragic.

Roots-minded producer Joe Henry (Solomon Burke, Elvis Costello) helps fill out songs that were originally voice and acoustic guitar with shimmering pedal steel and other string colors. And Wainwright's voice sounds better than ever, adding the weight of history to songs that were poignant to begin with. You can imagine him singing "Saw Your Name in the Paper" to his singer-songwriter offspring, Rufus and Martha — a confession about fame's dubious allure that now reads like a paternal warning.