Today we have John Prine's fifth studio album Bruised Orange. Released in 1978, the album received mostly positive reviews upon release. Many of the lyrics are written criticizing the cynicism Prine saw everywhere around him and occasionally resemble nursery rhymes.
It's too bad Phil Spector co-wrote the cheesy "If You Don't Want My Love," which repeats its title about seventy times in case saying it one more time will change her mind, because the string arrangement inspired by him force Prine to take a condescending approach to the subject of the lyrics. Generally, the nursery rhymes are hit or miss and the recorders, which pop every few songs, serve as a reminder that Prine isn't taking the music all that seriously either. The title track is the only song worth reading the lyrics to and "That the Way the World Goes Round" and "Crooked Piece of Time" have such silly and benign lyrics that I wouldn't have let them slide on his timid debut, much less this. B-
