Land's End (CD)

Singer-songwriter Jimmy Webb's career was built on his talent as the latter of those two musical soubriquets. Webb's career as a songwriter stretched across five decades and produced such pop classic as "By the Time I Get to Phoenix," "Wichita Lineman," "MacArthur Park," and "Up, Up, and Away," among many others. Webb also worked closely with and helped shape the careers of several well-known performers, including the 5th Dimension and Glenn Campbell, the artist with whom Webb is most often associated. While his own solo career never reached the heights of those with whom he worked, Webb's recordings have a sunny chamber-pop sound that has come to be quite respected and often imitated through the years.

• Category:  Music  »  Rock & Pop  »  General Rock & Pop
• Format: CD   Learn more about the CD format using Tower WIKI.
• Release Date: April 4, 2006
• Label: Collectors' Choice
• UPC: 617742066128
• WAPI (Tower ID): 106167566
• Average Customer Review: There are no customer reviews yet. Be the first to write a review!
• Tower.com Sales Rank: #92295 in Music (See Top 100 Music Bestsellers)
• #26824 in Rock & Pop (See Top 100 Rock & Pop Bestsellers)
• #17636 in General Rock & Pop (See Top 100 General Rock & Pop Bestsellers)

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While it is safe to say that very few people have heard Land's End, it is also a safe bet that some have heard a track or two. Most notable is "Crying In My Sleep," on which Art Garfunkel does such a fine job. Some folks might also remember "Alyce Blue Gown," but all in all, the rest of the music here hasn't found a wide fan base. Webb has quite a number of famous friends along to help him in his musical vision, but when all is said and done, Land's End generally falls just a bit short of the runway. ~ James Chrispell

After extracting himself from his contract with Reprise Records, which had failed to break him as a recording artist despite his renown as a songwriter, Jimmy Webb made what must have seemed like the perfect moves to achieve his goal of achieving stardom as a performer. He signed to the hottest singer/songwriter-oriented record label in the music business, artist manager David Geffen's boutique company Asylum, which was just then scoring major successes with Bob Dylan (Planet Waves) and Joni Mitchell (Court and Spark). He then went to England, where he recorded with an all-star session band that included Mitchell, Ringo Starr, and members of Elton John's backup band (Davey Johnstone, Dee Murray, and Nigel Olsson). As was no doubt intended, Land's End, the resulting album, achieved the heavily produced, dense pop/rock sound of such contemporary efforts (and Top Ten hits) as Ringo, Paul McCartney & Wings' Band on the Run, and Carly Simon's Hotcakes. And it achieved a thematic consistency in that most of its songs were tales of romantic discord addressed from an "I" narrator to a "you" who was giving that narrator trouble. "I don't think you're human," Webb declared harshly in the opening song, "Ocean in His Eyes," "but I'll miss you anyway." And he proved that in the album's catchiest song (one later covered definitively by Art Garfunkel), "Crying in My Sleep," an account of dissolute behavior caused by loneliness. Not all the songs were that self-pitying, however. The key track was "Just This One Time," in which Webb made his case for having his love work out, accompanying his soulfully expressed plea with what sounded like a heavenly choir and loudly pounding drums. Unfortunately, just as Webb's early solo albums had seemed under-produced, Land's End seemed over-produced, sacrificing the emotional content of the songs to bombastic arrangements. As usual, there were some well-written songs, and Webb continued to gain confidence and skill as a singer. But he still hadn't found an identity as a solo artist, and his fourth album followed his first three into obscurity. ~ William Ruhlmann

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