Blame It on the Night [Remastered]

At times it sounds like Coyne, or other forces, are attempting to make his music more commercial here, with the full, generic mid-'70s arrangements and occasional horns. That's a proposition as fruitless as selling snow to the Eskimos. Coyne is never going to be a mainstream artist; it seems more sensible to let him rip and be eccentric, playing in acoustic, stripped-down, bluesy contexts. Fortunately, that's what he does on about half the album, sounding his borderline lunatic self on "Don't Delude Me," and opting for an eerie, cryptic mood on "Blame It on the Night," and "Witch," with its flamenco guitars and undercurrent of suspicious paranoia. How not to gain commercial airplay, lesson 14: write lyrics such as "I cannot stand her friends anymore, I will wipe them across the floor" (from "Witch"). ~ Richie Unterberger