Punch the Clock
At times more ear-rending than the much malignedGoodbye Cruel World--thank the blaring horns, which augment an uneven bunch of songs--Punch the Clocknonetheless has its great moments. The searing political statements "Shipbuilding" and "Pills and Soap" are obvious high points (as is Chet Baker's solo on the former), while on the poppier side "Everyday I Write the Book" is sweetly distressed, "Let Them All Talk" definitively defiant, and "The World and His Wife" high-level sneering wordplay. At least a couple of the bonus tracks in Rykodisc's edition, though, trump some of the originalClock's weaker cuts.--Rickey Wright