Bob Lind Something Worse Than Loneliness (CD)

 "Something Worse Than Loneliness" is Bob Lind's third album of new material in the last decade, following 2012's "Finding You Again" and 2016's "Magellan Was Wrong," both records serving to reacquaint many of us with Lind. 

 We remembered his 1966 folk-rock hit "Elusive Butterfly" and oft-covered classics like "Cheryl's Goin' Home," but we discovered that his new work is just as strong - perhaps even stronger - than those earlier releases. "Something Worse Than Loneliness" takes Lind to the next level at a time when most of his contemporaries have long since lost their mojo. From the title track to gems like "Terry's Song (Just Right)," "My Satellite" and the album-closing "Born For This," which Lind says "expresses why a 79-year-old man keeps trying," this new collection is a gift that gives more with each successive listen.

In 'Leave Me Alone,' an entire life is summed up in just a few short minutes. Or how about 'Back To Me In Memphis', with its vivid references to the historic city's landmarks and heroic people, all in a mini-story so personal and vivid you might forget you're not standing on Beale Street while listening. The album's only cover song, Danny O'Keefe's 'You Look Just Like A Girl Again,' is so tender and open that it makes you want to hug it. You can really pick it - there's not a song that doesn't hit you where you live.

Lind, of course, is quick to admit that he didn't make this music alone. The album was produced and arranged by Jamie Hoover, whom you may already know as the mastermind behind the Spongetones, a great pop-rock band from North Carolina. Hoover, who also contributes much of the instrumentation on the album and background vocals (along with Elena Rogers), seems to instinctively know how to frame Lind's evocative language to bring out its brilliance and inherent wisdom. These songs are familiar - you immediately feel like you've known them all your life - and yet there's nothing retro about them. You will welcome them into your life like a new best friend.