“Make It Easy On Yourself” was a selfish sulk from a big little boy, but this gloom is regal, a woe so deep and indulgent that it stops time and blacks the heavens out. Scott’s producers learn how to do Spector properly and their vast velvet bass and piano sounds turn the Wall of Sound into an opulent, tear-soaked pillow. Scott himself gets lyrics which speak to his inner fatalist – “nothing to lose and no more to win” – and sings them with a great quiet tenderness as the storm breaks. The only bum note – redeemed anyhow by the way the chorus thunders in after – is the “Lonely, without you baby” bridge. Too personal, too specific, too small – to admit an object in this song is to lessen its soothing, solipsist power.
Score: 8
[Logged in users can award their own score]