Warren Zevon – Life’ll Kill Ya

“You’ve got an invalid haircut/And it hurts when you smile.” With the opening lines to the title track of his latest album, Warren Zevon further establishes his reputation as a songwriter to equal John Prine. Like Prine, too, he’s spent the last couple decades quietly going about his business, although the further he recedes from the commercial glory days of “Werewolves Of London”, the more his cult shrinks.

Sometimes the constricting circle of Zevon’s spotlight produces strangely stilted music, such as 1995’s Mutineer; about as often, it engenders brilliance along the lines of 1989’s sprawling Transverse City. With Life’ll Kill Ya, Zevon seems to acknowledge that he works best satisfying himself, and he does so by assembling 12 thoughtful, often caustically funny, always intimately felt songs.

Continuing the lower-expectations aesthetic begun with Mr. Bad Example in 1991, Life’ll Kill Ya keeps the arrangements lean, the music uncomplicated. From the Dylan-styled guitar-plus-harmonica jangle of “I Was In The House When The House Burned Down” to the finger-picked foundation of “Don’t Let Us Get Sick”, Zevon varies pitch between rumbling basso and expressively strained falsetto, yet his overall tone remains steady.

Familiarity of form also affects content: false idols amid Neil Young chords in “Porcelain Monkey”, bad love in “For My Next Trick I’ll Need A Volunteer”, poor poor pitiful he in “I’ll Slow You Down”. However, stability suits the material, which in turn fits a somewhat kindlier Zevon, to the point that his wistful remake of Steve Winwood’s “Back In The High Life” jars only like the ripple of a pebble thrown into the burbling stream. Excitable Boy no longer.