Equal Strain on All Parts＜Blue Vinyl＞

Jimmy Buffett was diagnosed with an aggressive skin cancer around the time he was wrapping up work on 2020s Life on the Flip Side, but he spent the next four years working steadily, playing annual shows with his Coral Reefer Band and finishing the album that became his last, Equal Strain on All Parts. Arriving about two months after his death, Equal Strain on All Parts doesnt sound like the last testament of a dying man. Its a joyous, sometimes raucous, sometimes reflective album that lives thoroughly in the moment, swinging between sunshine and twilight in a warm, comforting manner. Buffett doesnt shy away from his enduring obsessions -- even the opening "University of Bourbon Street," an unabashed celebration of the rolling beat of New Orleans R&B -- but hes also not operating on autopilot. Hes spinning stories and telling jokes, inviting Paul McCartney and Emmylou Harris into the studio to share the good times, playing country-rock ("Close Calls"), sun-bleached ballads ("Equal Strain on All Parts"), and tropical pop ("Like My Dog") with equal fervor, taking the time to cover Bob Dylan, write a tribute to French rock & roller Johnny Hallyday, and craft another working-for-the-weekend anthem with "Nobody Works on Friday." Maybe none of these songs carry the weight of mortality, but taken together, they amount to an effective summation of Buffetts enduring charms. Its not a bad way to say goodbye at all. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine