Jackson Browne - For Everyman (1973)

Another Jackson Browne album I was so fond of I that I wore out the first copy of the LP within a few years and replaced it with a second one. It kick offs lightheartedly with a country-tinged version of the Eagles hit 'Take It Easy', which Browne co-wrote with Glenn Frey, and gets compellingly darker and deeper through pieces like 'Colors of the Sun', 'These Days', 'The Times You've Come' and 'For Everyman'.

There's some comic relief (the fiddle-fuelled 'Ready Or Not') and a bit of good-time boogie (the slide guitar-propelled 'Red Neck Friend') in between, but it's the introspective moments that reveal Browne's admirable ability to wed words to music and offer stunning portraits of human strife.