I'm a huge Nilsson fan, so take this with a grain of salt, but this is one of the best rock records ever made. It's not that this album contains all of his best stuff from a songwriting standpoint, but the performance of the session players, particularly Herbie Flowers on bass and Jim Gordon on drums, the production of the record by Richard Perry, the awesome vocal performance by Nilsson, and the interesting selection of songs combine to make one of rock's greatest moments. Gotta Get Up deftly mixes a rocking chorus lamenting the rat-race with an old-timey sounding plea for romance. Driving Along picks up the same modern times, hustle-and bustle thread with an acoustic-based rocker that sports the kind of melody that Nilsson seems so good at and comfortable in. Nilsson then loops back to longing with Early in the Morning. With just voice over organ, this minimalist and intimate take on Louis Jordan's bluesy number exquisitely captures the song's lonely lyrics and then gives way to Nilsson's Moonbeam Song, which echoes the house-that-jack-built lyrics of the Point's Think About Your Troubles, converting the loneliness of Early into a solitary contemplation on one's place in the universe (comprised of fences, weathervanes, railroads, wind, windows, and of course the moon). Nilsson then drops into a Fats Domino via John Lennon rocking rave on being "Down" about as far as you can go--but, with what was originally the opener on the second side of the LP, Without You manages to take the listener down even more, to the farthest reaches of heartache. Nilsson's cover of the Badfingers Ham and Evans tune is the embodiment of sorrow, one of rock's best vocal performances of all time, mixing a soft melancholy with Roy Orbison-like melodramatic anguish. In typical Nilsson fashion, he immediately follows up with the comical Coconut, which comes across as a novelty song, but is in fact an intricate one-chord rocker which sets the stage for the ultimate rock song, Jump Into the Fire. The playing and production on Coconut, along with Nilsson's characteristic playful yet urgent vocal and the appeal of the humor, make this one of the most listenable singles you'll ever hear. Before climaxing with the rock masterpiece Jump however, Nilsson echoes the past, tying in the album's earlier nostalgia, with Leonard Lee's Let the Good Times Roll, made famous by, among others, Fats Domino. What might seem like a throwaway is as good a performance as any on the album. The record then explodes with Jump, a simple shouter made complex by the interplay of the instruments, punchy with the coolest bass line ever (Klaus Voormann), and the insistent drums which themselves climax into an extended primal drum solo before the bass and guitars slink back into the outro. The drumming is complex and over-thetop and highlights Nilsson's penchant for the unexpected, which continues with the closer, I'll Never Leave You, a lonely romantic tune with lush strings that was originally intended for The Point and echoes that album's sweetness, but with the strong current of melancholy that lurks under all of Nilsson Schmilsson. Like all great records, this one has a timeless quality making you feel comfortable with its familiarity and common themes, but surprising you at every turn. It's a once-in-a-lifetime record.
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