Loudon Wainwright III
Album: Older Than My Old Man Now
Label: Proper
Tracks: 15
Website: http://www.lw3.com/

The 'Old Man' in the title of the album refers to Loudon's father, Loudon Wainwright Jr. the once senior editor of Life magazine.

As Wainwright reaches the stage in his musical life where he takes a look back over his shoulder and stops to reflect maybe on what lies ahead, he has no intent on publishing memoirs or door-stop tomes, instead he explains ' I decided I would try to tell the story of my swinging life in a three and a half minute song'.

This he does with the album's opening song 'The Here & The Now', a real family affair upon which he is backed by all four of his children, Rufus and Martha Wainwright, Lucy Wainwright-Roche and Lexie Kely-Wainwright. There's even Suzzy Roche and Rita Marie Kelly, a former and current partner respectively, in there for good measure.

Loudon claims the new album reflects his current stage in life, this being 'death and decay'. The track 'Double Lifetime' illustrates this so well, being a song about asking his creator for a second opportunity to live his life again, with the start of the song being a recitation lifted from one his father's notebooks.

The family involvement continues with a nice reworking of the song 'Over the Hill, penned together with Kate McGarrigle in 1975, before she became mother to Rufus and Martha.

Other high level collaborations on the album see Loudon join up with Chris Smither on 'Somebody Else', a pretty morbid song about friends dying.

Barry Humphries duets on the song 'I Remember Sex', with the pair as husband and wife reminiscing hilariously on happier times in the bedroom, and Rambling Jack Elliot assists on two tracks, Older than My Old Man Now' and 'Double Lifetime'.

The album covers the full spectrum of musical styles, from basic guitar and vocals, to full production numbers with string arrangements and swinging funk and it's a great way to mark one of life's big milestones.

Phil Carter