Man Overboard

Album review

Ian Hunter sounded younger than his years on 2007's Shrunken Heads, but on its 2009 sequel, Man Overboard, he shows signs of age in his weathered rasp as well as the album's slower tempos and greater emphasis on ragged acoustic arrangement. Older doesn't necessarily mean any less vigorous, though, at least not in Hunter's case. He writes and sings like a man who thinks he might have seen it all but isn't quite sure, so he keeps going, turning out tunes that feel familiar in form but fresh in substance. Since Man Overboard doesn't always rock as furiously as Shrunken Heads, it's easier to appreciate his songcraft and how deeply felt the performances are, whether Hunter is nimbly leading his band of pros through the country-rock ramble of "The Great Escape," cranking up the boogie on "Up and Running," writes a rock & roll love song as funny and knowing as "The Girl from the Office," or turning in another finely honed bittersweet epic on the closer, "River of Tears." Nothing here is flashy, which is keeping in a long tradition of Hunter's and is yet another reason why he's often called underrated, but when he's making records as rich and resonant as Man Overboard at the age of 70, it's hard not to listen with not a small degree of wonder.

© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo