Strange Weirdos

LOUDON WAINWRIGHT IIISTRANGE WEIRDOS

Loudon Wainwright III came to me late in life. After Bob Dylan. After Neil Young. After Townes Van Zandt. After Tom Waits. After John Prine. After Leonard Cohen. Even after Steve Earle. After everyone, and I'm pretty sure that's how Loudon – the perpetual sad clown who's too smart for his own good – would want it. I'd heard his debut album more times than I could count (and always thought it was pretty good), but not until I heard the opening nine seconds of Attempted Mustache did I officially welcome the typically funny, sometimes heartbreaking songwriter into my life. Oddly enough, my interest in Attempted Mustache was prompted by a viewing of the film Knocked Up. If you've not yet heard Loudon's music, you should, he's very, very good. And his new album, Strange Weirdos, which just happens to also work as the soundtrack to Knocked Up, is just as good as most of his classic-era work.

When director Judd Apatow (40 Year Old Virgin) began putting the pieces together for what would become Knocked Up he asked Loudon to provide a song called "Grey In L.A." that Loudon had just started performing live. "Sure, but only if my friend Richard Thompson can play the recording," was Loudon's response. Apatow was thrilled, and before long Loudon was sending Apatow more and more songs, all of which tied into the familial themes of the script Apatow had passed on to Loudon to read. 

Loudon, who has always written very candidly about his personal shortcomings (particularly as a family man), was a perfect fit for the film's content, though the slow-burning Americana feel of the songs on Strange Weirdos hardly match with Apatow's dirty, frat-ready film. That doesn't matter: Knocked Up is a very funny, sometimes sweet film and, more importantly, Strange Weirdos is a very good album that is very sweet and sometimes funny.

Played and recorded entirely with Joe Henry (who has released a substantial amount of excellent solo work in his own right), Strange Weirdos’ production sounds very similar to last year’s All The Roadrunning, a duo record released last year by Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris. Timeless yet as modern as modern gets, Strange Weirdos kicks off nicely with the aforementioned “Grey In L.A.” before heading into the excellent “You Can’t Fail Me Now.” Both songs, as well as the rest of the album, highlight Loudon’s vocals, which somehow sound exactly the same as they did in 1970.

Other highlights include a catchy cover of Peter Blegvad’s “Daughter,” “Final Frontier” (which also features Thompsons’ stunning guitar work) and a newly recorded version of “Lullaby,” a song written about Wainwright’s son, Rufus, and originally featured on Mustache. Really, though, strange weirdos is the kind of album you put on and play front to back, stopping only to laugh at Wainwright’s wordplay or choke on his brutal, poetic honesty.

All in all, Strange Weirdos is Wainwright’s best album since 1992’s History. Hopefully it’s also the start of a beautiful working relationship for Henry and Wainwright. Apatow puts it best in the album’s liner notes: “I am so proud that a movie I wrote in my underwear has led to this record, a completely unique piece of music and art which is both connected to our film and completely its own wonderful, heartfelt creation.”  8/10

Written by G. William Locke