Warren Zevon
Sentimental Hygiene

THE REVIEW

In 1987, the great Warren Zevon, backed by artists of the caliber of Bob Dylan, Neil Young, R.E.M., Brian Setzer, and David Lindley, recorded one of the cornerstone albums of his career, imbued with those innate skills in his songwriting, namely the proverbial irony and the innate ability to create splendid atmospheres that are accompanied each time by stunning vocal tones hidden under a seemingly apparent discomfort.

The album in question is further characterized by a splendid production highlighted particularly by a remastered edition featuring two unreleased tracks (the instrumental "Nocturne" and the Spanish language version of "Leave My Monkey Alone").

Through ten splendid tracks, inner torments, thoughts, and reflections are then unfolded of what would become the "Mr. Bad Example"; the two initial songs are truly gems of Zevon's output: the title track embellished by the superb solo by the Canadian loner and the hard-blues'n'roll style of "Boom Boom Mancini", one of the most beautiful songs ever regarding a boxing episode, refresh a singer-songwriter scene which was really stagnant at the time. "The Factory" is reminiscent not only in the title of a song by his friend Bruce Springsteen and features Dylan, who is in top form, on harmonica. "Trouble Waiting To Happen" and the slow and moving "Reconsider Me" are two songs that evolve from purely personal perspectives to present themselves as "universal warnings."

The powerful rock of "Detox Mansion" is perfect to describe the risks deriving from alcoholism, one of the problems that led Warren to physical ruin and precedes "Bad Karma" which already in the title alludes to reincarnation, emphasizing what is predestination to bad luck and unwinds in an almost homemade finale based on a sitar solo. "Even A Dog Can Shake Hands" is a song of lively hard-rock that, in its structure, mocks the vacuous Hollywood world and precedes two entirely antithetical songs from a musical aspect, namely the bluesy ballad of "The Heartache" made even more poignant by Jennifer Warnes' backing vocals and the pure funky of "Leave My Monkey Alone" produced by George Clinton, a song where the role played and still played by the figure of the British Empire is addressed.

Ultimately let yourself be carried away in the whirlwind of emotions that this artist was able to gift in a career cut off far too soon. Enjoy listening.