“Cringemaker”—seventh song on 11 Tracks of Whack (Walter Becker) (1994)

The opening lines of this song sum it up completely: “Whatever happened to my college belle/When did she turn into the wife from hell?” “Cringemaker” isn’t a word, I don’t think, but you know exactly what it means. The weird thing here is that it seems like the wrong word for what he’s describing in this song—a relationship that has run its course—but maybe that just points out our different ways of seeing things when it comes to long-term relationships. That’s okay, because I’m happy to go along for a weird five-minute ride every once in a while. I can’t say I love this song, or even like it, though—besides its chilly portrait of disaffection. The sound is a lethargic blues—it reminds me of nothing so much as way later (maybe around this time, 1994) Rolling Stones—after the point they had written all the songs, and songwriting seemed to be about not repeating the songs that they already wrote. I could be wrong, I haven’t actually listened to any Stones past Steel Wheels. That was bad enough. I still love them, though, and I still love Walter Becker—and I’m glad I’ve got a couple of well-made solo LPs, even if it’s not always enjoyable. There are more than 11 tracks on this one, actually, and I have no idea if they’re all “whack”—though some of them, like this one, are “wack.” Fortunately, there are better ones coming up, and I’ll get to them.

—Randy Russell 1.8.23