Album III
A "new Dylan" with critical acclaim but few fans, Loudon Wainwright III moved to Columbia Records and traded his prior albums' unadorned voice and guitar for a higher-octane folk-rock ensemble sound on this 1972 release. The strategy earned the WASP-ish troubadour the left-field Top 40 hit "Dead Skunk," which is still his best-known song--a Pyrrhic victory that confirmed Wainwright's wit and roguish vocal style, but obscured the depth and nuance of his pointedly autobiographical material.Album IIIoffers more telling, if still funny, glimpses of its author, as well as more sobering slices of his deceptively concise art. Most striking of all is the blink-and-you'll-miss-it "Red Guitar," which in less than two minutes paints a startling self portrait of the rage behind the smirk.--Sam Sutherland