Final Exam | |
Type: | Album |
Artist: | Loudon Wainwright III |
Cover: | FinalExamalbumcover.jpg |
Released: | 1978 |
Studio: | MZH Studios, New York City |
Genre: | Folk |
Label: | Arista |
Producer: | John Lissauer |
Prev Title: | T Shirt |
Prev Year: | 1976 |
Next Title: | A Live One |
Next Year: | 1979 |
Final Exam is an album by the American musician Loudon Wainwright III, released in 1978.[1] He supported it with a North American tour.[2] The album was re-released on Telarc in 2007, coupled with his 1976 album, T Shirt.[3] In 1995, Wainwright acknowledged that it was his least favorite of his albums.[4]
The album was produced by John Lissauer.[5] Wainwright was backed by the band Slow Train.[6] "Pretty Little Martha" is a tribute to his daughter Martha Wainwright.[7] "Heaven and Mud" is about an attempt at sobriety. "Golfin' Blues" is about the golfing life, in the style of a Delta blues song. "Mr. Guilty" is a parody of the tropes of country music. The title track is addressed to a high school student taking spring semester exams.[8]
The New York Times wrote that Wainwright "deals primarily with a quirky kind of humor that seems almost to mask emotion."[9] The Commercial Appeal considered Final Exam to be Wainwright's best, writing that he "operates without the philosophical cleverness of Randy Newman, preferring instead to use a straightforward, crazed style to push his point across."[10] The Journal & Courier praised Wainwright's acoustic guitar playing.[11]
The Arizona Daily Star noted Wainwright's "mind like a steel trap ... a warped steel trap."[12] The Star Tribune opined that "the clever cynic ... has become a television sit-com writer."[13] The Morning Call determined that Wainwright "furthers his reputation as an unconventional, witty songwriter ... but there are no real standouts."[14]
In 1983, The Philadelphia Inquirer labeled the album "self-pitying and melodramatic."[15] Reviewing the reissue, Music Week deemed it an "enjoyable [fusion] of his more traditional folk style with a harder, rockier edge."[16]
All tracks composed by Loudon Wainwright III
with: