Life Is Messy

After the commercial falloff of , took two and a half years crafting his seventh album, , in the interim going through a divorce from his wife, . The most notable characteristic of was that it marked a complete return to his original style. With nary a steel guitar or fiddle to be heard, and featuring top session musicians as well as a slew of guest stars ( , etc.), wasn't really a record at all. A couple of songs had a feel, but the dominant musical style was a pastiche of late-'50s/early-'60s . The title song was a somewhat abstract meditation on romantic discord and career disappointment that was followed by the equally despairing which actually had been co-written with . These songs sounded so pained and deeply felt that some of the more uptempo songs came off as trivial, even if they made for a change of pace. But other songs came up to their standard without being quite so low in mood. found the singer beginning to find his way, and revealed the noncommittal feelings one can have when emotional certainties are uprooted. Taken together, the songs on made for a fascinating portrait of an artist at a personal and professional crossroad -- but it didn't have much to do with commercial music circa 1992, which is what it was primarily marketed as. After a few months, pulled the plug on promotion and parted ways with , who moved on to . ~ William Ruhlmann