A month after my deep dive of Jackson Browne’s studio catalog, and seven years after the singer-songwriter’s last record, Browne released his 15th album. If he’d moved a little quicker, or I’d moved a little slower, it would have been part of that series.
Instead, I’m getting to 2021’s Downhill from Everywhere five years late.
Continuing a countdown of my favorite albums of 1977…
#4 – Running on Empty – Jackson Browne
I did a Jackson Browne deep dive five years ago that gave me a strong appreciation for the man’s work. But even after digging into 14 studio albums, it was hard to find anything that compares to the one I already loved: Running on Empty.
This is a concept album about life on the road that was recorded on the road — in front of live audiences, on a tour bus, in hotel rooms and backstage rehearsal spaces. It captures the lazy haze of that vagabond existence and drips with the sweat of hard-working musicians and their supporting crews.
Continuing my look at the albums of 1976…
Before I get to nine albums I gave my first real listen for this series, I want to run through a handful of 1976 albums I have written about already as part of artist deep dives.
My favorite of the bunch is Jackson Browne’s The Pretender, which ended up as my fifth favorite of his 14 albums. Recorded in the backdrop of his wife’s death by suicide, the album is a lot more upbeat than you’d expect.
This week I’m kicking off the latest installment of my ‘Decades’ series, wherein I feature songs from renowned albums from a single year across four decades. So far I have covered the first four years of the 70s, 80s, 90s, and 00s. That brings me back around to 1974.
Normally, I count down my own favorite albums from the given year before moving on to albums with which I’m not familiar. This year, though, proves to be a bit of a blindspot for me. While I have passing familiarity with the first five or six albums I’ll feature, I don’t know them well enough to rank them.
It’s been exactly a month since I wrapped up my deep dive into the albums of Jackson Browne, and now he’s back with the first single from his upcoming release.
Browne’s 15th studio album, Downhill From Everywhere, is due out next month, seven years after what I suspected might be his last effort, 2014’s Standing in the Breach.
