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.
Jackson Browne’s 1976 album The Pretender was his first to reach the Top Ten on the albums chart (it made it to #5) and it scored his highest-charting hit since ‘Doctor My Eyes’ in ‘Here Come Those Tears Again.’
Browne’s wife, Phyllis Major, took her own life during the recording of this album, but that loss isn’t really reflected in the music. One track, ‘Sleep’s Dark and Silent Gate,’ addresses the suicide, but the album is otherwise much more upbeat than its predecessor.
Meet Me In Montauk 