Patron Saint Of Losers, The (The John Otway Anthology 1972-2007)

If there's going to be a two-CD John Otway anthology, you can't say The Patron Saint of Losers doesn't give good value. Its 46 songs cover a 35-year span including, of course, his British hits "Really Free," "DK 50-80," and "Bunsen Burner." Usually two CDs are better than one, but here's one case where you could argue that if all you want of Otway is a compilation, two CDs might be one too many. More than most artists, he's one you either like or dislike, and if you're not based in the U.K., his British brand of eccentricity doesn't travel nearly as well as that of many others from his homeland. If you have the appetite (or endurance) for his brand of oddball pop, however, his arch brand of offbeat humor is here in all its shades. It's certainly too heavy on twisted remakes/reworkings of old hits and standards whose novelty soon wears off, and which doesn't sit comfortably with the more sincere, pastoral, rustic country-folk-influenced items that also take up some space on this collection. Versatility is not Otway's problem; there are few if any other artists whose approach encompasses disco, hard rock, rock & roll, roots music, the very most outer fringes of new wave and punk, and even, on "Poetry and Jazz," what sounds for all the world like a deliberate Al Stewart lampoon. However, just as there's not all that big an audience for Al Stewart satires, there's a limit to the audience for a straining thin-voiced singer who can make fun of everything with more or less equally modest ability. That limited audience, however, will have a lot of fun with The Patron Saint of Losers, though it's the earlier and rootsier material that sounds best. ~ Richie Unterberger|