Consumer Guide Album

Jimmy Buffett: Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes [ABC, 1977]
Buffett's certainly more likable than the average professional rakehell--he's complex, he's honest, he takes good care of his sense of humor, and above all he doesn't come on like a hot shit. This is his most reflective album, and though I'm nothing like him--"Wonder Why We Ever Go Home" is hardly my take on aging--I find myself interested whenever he stops and thinks, which happens mostly on side one. "Banana Republics," about expatriates reaping the wages (and pleasures) of imperialism even if Buffett would never put it that way, is my favorite, but I also love this breakthrough insight from his breakthrough single: "Some people claim that there's a woman to blame/But I know it's my own damn fault." B+