Sentimental Hygiene [Bonus Tracks] [Remaster]

Performer: Warren Zevon
Artist: Waddy Wachtel; Jennifer Warnes; Neil Young; R.E.M.; Bob Dylan; Brian Setzer; Don Henley; David Lindley
Distributor: EMI Music Distribution

Notes: Personnel: Warren Zevon (vocals, acoustic & electric guitars, piano, keyboards); Peter Buck, Neil Young, Brian Setzer, Rick Richards, Mike Campbell, Blackbyrd McKnight (guitar); David Lindley (lap steel guitar); Darius (sitar); Bob Dylan (harmonica); Amp Fiddler, Jai Winding (keyboards); Mike Mills, Flea, Tony Levin, Leland Sklar (bass); Jorge Calderon (bass, background vocals); Bill Berry, Craig Krampf (drums); Will Alexander, Brian Bell (programming); Michael Stipe, Stan Lynch, Don Henley, Jennifer Warnes (background vocals). Producers: Warren Zevon, Andrew Slater, Niko Bolas. Personnel: Warren Zevon (guitar, acoustic guitar, piano, keyboards); Waddy Wachtel (guitar, acoustic guitar); Mike Campbell , Neil Young, Peter Buck, Blackbyrd McKnight, Brian Setzer (guitar); David Lindley (lap steel guitar); Bob Dylan (harmonica); Jai Winding, Amp Fiddler (keyboards); Craig Krampf, Bill Berry (drums); William Alexander, Brian Bell (programming). Audio Mixers: Niko Bolas; Shelly Yakus. Audio Remasterer: David McEowen. Liner Note Author: David Wild. Recording information: A&M Studios, Hollywood, CA; Cheshire Sound, Atlanta, GA; Record One. Photographer: Herb Ritts. Arrangers: George Clinton ; Larry Ferguson; Niko Bolas. West Coast based songwriter Warren Zevon emerged from middling activity and high-strung excess with SENTIMENTAL HYGIENE, his strongest record in years. The album zooms with renewed vigor, well placed cameos, and Zevon's trademark mix of black humor and heartache. Things kick off with the chugging title track, highlighted by a stinging solo from fellow iconoclast Neil Young. Zevon then turns his chronicler's eye towards the boxing ring with the gripping "Boom Boom Mancini." From there it's Springsteen territory "Working at the Factory" with Bob Dylan supplying the harmonica breaks. R.E.M. turns up on the jaunty "Even the Dog Can Shake Hands," which takes passing pot shots at hanger's on. Never one to wallow in self-pity, Zevon turns his forked tongue inward on "Detox Mansion." His alcohol rehab experiences bubble over the top in the alternately hilarious and gripping song, resulting in the album's funniest, hardest hitting and ultimately, most rewarding moment. After a rather well-publicized fall off the wagon following the release of The Envoy, Warren Zevon went five years without releasing an album, but his time in the woodshed seemed to have done him good, as Sentimental Hygiene was his strongest album since Warren Zevon in 1976. While a few members of the L.A. Mellow Mafia (David Lindley, Waddy Wachtel, Don Henley) made cameo appearances on the album, for most of the sessions Zevon worked with Peter Buck, Mike Mills, and Bill Berry of R.E.M., who were about a year away from their mainstream commercial breakthrough; they made for a solid, no-nonsense rhythm section and gave the music a passionate, forceful backbone that was largely absent from The Envoy (not to mention rocking harder than one might expect from the kings of jangle pop). Zevon put his newly muscular sound to good use; the songs on Sentimental Hygiene are Warren Zevon at his flintiest, as he indulges in his usual obsessions with machismo ("Boom Boom Mancini") and bad love (the title cut) while also exploring the media's skewed perspective on his addiction problems ("Detox Mansion," "Trouble Waiting to Happen"), his disgust with the music business ("Even a Dog Can Shake Hands"), and errors in both personal and political judgment ("Bad Karma," "Leave My Monkey Alone"). And Zevon scored three inspired musical guest shots on the album -- Neil Young, whose jagged guitar runs embroider the title cut; Bob Dylan, whose howling harmonica is the ideal punctuation for the Springsteen-gone-psychotic "The Factory"; and George Clinton, who adds a bed of menacing funk to "Leave My Monkey Alone." Sentimental Hygiene proved that Warren Zevon was still an artist to be reckoned with, and that which didn't kill him had only made him stronger (and more bitterly funny). [In 2003, Sentimental Hygiene was digitally remastered and reissued with two bonus tracks: a previously unreleased Spanish-language version of "Leave My Monkey Alone" and the brief avant-garde instrumental "Nocturne."] ~ Mark Deming

Rolling Stone (9/4/03, p.147) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...One of the least sentimental records ever made about getting sober. [Features some of] Zevon's best-ever songs..." Uncut (9/03, p.96) - "...[A] strong comeback..."

Though he came out of the '70s Southern California scene and was championed by Jackson Browne, Warren Zevon's music is far more dark and sardonic than that background would suggest. The quintessential troubadour-with-an-attitude, he's sung about guns, death, and cattle disease (seriously) with a biting sense of humor and a musicality that's attributable to his early classical training. He's probably the only rocker who studied with Stravinsky. He blazed away through the '80s and '90s, doing some of his best work at the turn of the century, but he was cut down by cancer in 2003, leaving behind the album THE WIND as his farewell.

Click Here for Shipping Options and Policies

Shipping or Dimension weight in pounds: 0.25