Haven't Got the Blues (Yet)

This disc shows he’s still at the top of his game.

For the rest of the world, the album is just another notch in the man’s long discography that you can cherry-pick some favorite moments from and compost the rest.

Twenty-six albums in, Loudon Wainwright's signature is etched even more deeply into the American songsmith grain on Haven't Got the Blues (Yet).

With almost every line a zinger, Wainwright's cocktail of satire and over-sharing remains potent. [Sep 2014, p.117]

At this stage in his career, Loudon Wainwright III could forgivably have lost some of his mojo, but on the life-affirming evidence of Haven’t Got The Blues (Yet), there’s still plenty of great songwriting left in the tank.

Like all of Wainwright’s music, Haven’t Got the Blues (Yet) will divide opinion, depending on whether the listener enjoys his style; but whether the listener agrees with him or not, they cannot surely be unaffected by his rich outpouring of love, amusement, scorn, wit, and above all, spirit.

With musical modes brilliantly elevated by his occasional producer David Mansfield, Wainwright nails the exigencies of old age through the medium of rockabilly, the quest for parking spaces in Manhattan via cabaret klezmer, and the gloating joys of i-ding a faithless girlfriend dead in a deep freeze with cheery Vaudeville sing0along. [Aug 2014, p.90]

The whole thing feels like a dusky gambol through America's musical past. [Sep 2014, p.81]