4 John Prine

The Missing Years

OH BOY 1991, £12

You say: “Picture Show gets to the heart of his widescreen vision of possibility and resigned faith in hope.” Matt Laferty, via Facebook

Prine recorded several fine songs in the ’80s, but the new decade’s first batch represents a fresh beginning. Thanks to production from Howie Epstein, the credits are astounding – Springsteen, Petty, Raitt, an Everly Brother. More important, the songs are Prine’s sharpest in years. All The Best is a damning sequel to Dylan’s Don’t Think Twice, while Everything Is Cool reconciles staggering hurt without fully accepting it. But it’s closer Jesus, The Missing Years that reiterates Prine’s place as an imaginative visionary: a hypothetical chronicle of a mysterious span of Jesus’ life, these six minutes are hilarious, heretical and reverent, a sympathetic study into the death of a guy who barely had a chance to live.