Consumer Guide Album

Harry Nilsson: Son of Schmilsson [RCA Victor, 1972]
Nilsson functions on the edge of parody--his best stuff succeeds simultaneously as a kind of takeoff and as a genuinely moving example of the genre that has inspired him. Unfortunately, most of this album, which follows so close on the heels of his biggest commercial success that Nilsson (natch) makes a joke of it in the title, is too often merely funny or strange. This is wonderful as far as it goes. But those three or four songs that are much better than that suffer by association. Inspirational Verse: "You're breakin'; my heart/You're tearin' it apart/So fuck you." B+