For an album written after a break-up, that fact seems blunted by the relaxed country touches of the stately ballad "The Golden Age"****; by the time the similar "Guess I'm Doing Fine"**** rolls into view, the melancholy vibe is in effect and settles in for the duration. Though another an acoustic ballad, Compared to the first 4 songs, "Lost Cause"**** is airy by comparison, mitigating its bleak resolve. The moaning strings of "Round The Bend"**** have none of this lightness, nor does the desolate Gordon Lightfoot / Jim Croce folk of "Already Dead"****. The prominent bass and swooping strings also keep "Paper Tiger" and "Lonesome Tears" rooted in the 70's, while "Little One" has a strange eastern angularity. The snappy Howard Jones electronic drums and chiming guitars and keyboards give "Sunday Sun"**** a poppy sheen, but its core is still a painful empty. Despite the oppressive mood, there is not a weak track here, if one happens to have the stomach to take this trip all the way to the end of the line.
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