Harry Chapin's debut album is a smoothly put-together, if slightly musically unbalanced piece of
singer/songwriter rock, unbalanced because good as everything here is, the hit, "Taxi," and the other songs on the original LP's second side somewhat overwhelm the rest of Heads & Tales. "Taxi" is so elaborately produced and arranged that it's like a feature film that clocks in at six minutes and 44 seconds; "Any Old Kind of Day" is a beautiful and unsettling confessional about an artist's unease and depression, like an East Coast equivalent to
Brian Wilson's brand of personal songwriting, with a touch of
James Taylor's influence and unique phrasings and sensibilities by
Chapin; the epic "Dogtown" (which nearly overstays its welcome at seven and a half minutes) is a startling piece of song painting with a topical edge, which anticipated some aspects of
Chapin's subsequent public commitment to progressive political causes; and "Same Sad Singer" is a haunting, romantic confessional that explores some of the same emotional territory in first-person terms that "Taxi" dealt with through characters. Side one's songs don't quite match up, though "Empty" has nice hooks and a good beat. The record holds up well in part because of its strange combination of lean production and rich sounds -- producer
Jac Holzman preserved all of the elements from
Chapin's stage act that he liked, and apart from some keyboard embellishment from
Steve Chapin and percussion by
Russ Kunkel, it's all the basic quartet:
Ron Palmer on electric guitar,
Tim Scott on cello,
John Wallace on bass, and
Harry Chapin on acoustic guitar. They sound like a lot more players, and
Palmer and
Wallace add more than two backup singers should be capable of bringing to the table.
Chapin's singing isn't actually that good, his range and expressiveness at times very narrow, but his energy and commitment to the songs pour off the album and make this album a compelling listen 30 years later. ~ Bruce Eder, All Music Guide
