Life Is Messy
Life Is Messy is the seventh studio album released by American country music artist Rodney Crowell, released in 1992 by Columbia Records. It peaked at number 30 on the Top Country Albums chart. The songs, "Lovin' All Night", "What Kind of Love", "It's Not for Me to Judge", and "Let's Make Trouble" were released as singles. Content. The album's first two singles, "Lovin' All Night" and "What Kind of Love", were both released as singles. They respectively reached No. 10 and No. 11 on the Hot Country Songs charts in 1992. "The Answer Is  Yes" was covered by Michelle Wright on her 1996 album "For Me It's You", while "Lovin' All Night" was covered by Patty Loveless on her 2003 album "On Your Way Home". Critical reception. William Ruhlmann of Allmusic rated the album 4.5 out of 5 stars, concluding his review with, "Taken together, the songs on "Life Is Messy" made for a fascinating portrait of an artist at a personal and professional crossroad -- but it didn't have much to do with commercial country music circa 1992, which is what it was primarily marketed as." He compared the songs' sounds primarily  to "a pastiche of late-'50s/early-'60s pop". A review by Jack Hurst in the "Chicago Tribune" rated the album 3.5 out of 4, saying that the album had "a throbbing sound that is out on the pop-ish progressive end of the country spectrum, it treats life in all its surreal hurtfulness without neglecting its epic joys." A less positive review came from Alanna Nash of "Entertainment Weekly", who thought that the album showed emotional influence from Crowell's then-recent divorce from fellow singer Rosanne Cash, and highlighted the song "I Hardly Know How to Be Myself", which the  two wrote, as the best song on the album. She also compared Crowell's voice favorably to Roy Orbison but added that "too many of his songs splinter into nebulousness with the occasional joltingly bad line". Personnel. From "Life Is Messy" liner notes. Musicians Technical