9 Loudon Wainwright III

Therapy

SILVERTONE 1989, FROM £6.99 You Say: “For Thanksgiving, a bittersweet song of dysfunction, which is emotionally eviscerating even for this serial soul-bearer.” John Dodds, via e-mail OK, so no one needs to hear Wainwright’s trying-too-hard novelty song TSDHAV (This Song Don’t Have A Video) or yet another account of him picking up someone “young enough to be my daughter” (Aphrodisiac) but, if you can programme out those two unwelcome tracks, the rest of the album, with its quiet, small-scale arrangements and introspective delivery, has aged far better than its more famous predecessor, More Love Songs, and in Thanksgiving and This Year it contains two of his saddest, loveliest songs about broken family relationships, where the voice offers reconciliation even while the lyrics signal retreat.