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The point here is that this is NOT a bad album. It's certainly not Browne's best, or most introspective work, but it's better than most music churned out by his peers. Being compared to yourself is a tough thing, and the critics jumped all over Jackson Browne when "Lawyers In Love" was released.

Does EVERY Jackson Browne song have to drip emotion and deal with lost love, loneliness, despair, grief, or death? Actually "Cut It Away" and "Tender Is The Night" are excellent examples of the brooding Browne. These are good songs. OK, so the genius came up a little short in his attempt to show his cynical side while poking fun at middle America on the title track, but that's no reason to ditch the entire album. Isn't this guy allowed to have any fun?

Maybe the critics and some fans look to Browne to sum up their problems, worries and crises in neat little four minute packages. Browne, more than any other artist of his generation, is known for wearing his heart on his sleeve, for holding nothing back. He HAD been admired for that, and that honesty is probably what caused some dissatisfaction with this effort. Maybe he was just content here to give us a small dose with the songs mentioned above, but also delivering some honest - to - goodness rock and roll. "Downtown" and "For A Rocker" are terrific examples.

Every so often, even with an artist of Jackson Browne's immense talent, you just have to stop yourself from analyzing the crap out of every word he writes, and just enjoy the "listenability" of the recording. This is one of those times.

I wouldn't recommend this album as a FIRST taste of Jackson Browne, but for those who have listened to, and enjoyed his music, I would suggest that you add this recording to your collection.


Great ALbum By AnEnduring Artist!   July 17, 2002
 13 out of 14 found this review helpful

This is a terrific album, both because it represents a snapshot taken of Browne as he continued his evolvement from sixties folk-rocker to seventies rocker to eighties (and beyond) social commentator. While he still cuts quite a raucous swath through the material with his electrical accompaniment, the lyrics, once dreamy and intensely introspective, are showing much more flagrant concern with social issues and the contemporary political scene. So, while he opens the song cycle with an amusing take called "Lawyers In Love', he reminds us with a number of the lyrics in the song that he may use this irony to try to say a few things between the lines.

And increasingly, with each song as the cycle progresses, he comes farther and farther along the road of doing so, so that in "Cut It Away", he's describing the illusions he is being disabused of with the break-up of his romantic relationship, while in the next song, "Downtown", he is talking about the differences among different kinds of people sharing physical proximity in an urban setting. So too, in "Tender Is The Night", he mixes romantic overtones with undertones reflecting the nature of living in an urban landscape. Finally, though, he gets to the crux o the matter, for he uses "Say It Isn't True" to admit his horror in thinking about the reality of what human nature seems to be (with the haunting refrain of "yet there always has been/and always will be war' echoing throughout the song).

This is indeed a song one must listen closely to, one that has a lot of verve and relevance even now, after the arms race has subsided, for the threat of nuclear has not been erased.
This is one of the major milestones in Browne's continuing evolution toward maturity, and while he has made a number of detours back into more personal ruminations in albums such as the celebrated "Alive", which chronicles his infamous break-up with Darryl Hannah, he keeps returning to concerns with social political, and philosophical issues. This is a great album; enjoy!


It Still Plays   March 13, 2002
 10 out of 10 found this review helpful

Almost twenty years later (and a good part of a law career under my belt), Lawyers in Love still plays well. I was a Jackson Browne fan before I was a law student from 1981-84 (the album debuted in 1983), but I took special pleasure in the title track. I had to live with medical students because I couldn't take lawyers twenty-four hours a day.

Played back to back with other Jackson Browne albums, this clearly fits in as the work of a master singer/songwriter. Tender is the Night has a beat you cannot resist. It is the beginning of Jackson Browne's social commentary, so deserves a listen as a bridge between the personal tragedies of early work and the social activism of later work.

Well recommended.


Great CD!   February 27, 2002
 9 out of 10 found this review helpful

I own almost every Jackson Browne CD and after reading the shotty treatment this particular one is getting I felt compelled to respond. This is a wonderful collection of songs. The lyrics are intelligently written and the band sounds tight musically. I agree with one of the other reviewers who wrote that it is hard to be compared to yourself, especially if your as talented as Browne is. Can't the guy have a little fun and not have it be said he's "lost his musical direction"? It seems like when an artist does something a little different than they normally would do it, people jump all over their backs for it. I love albums like "Late For Sky," "The Pretender," and "I'm Alive," they are some of my favorites in fact, but I am also finding the more I listen to "Lawyers In Love" the more I like it. My personal favorites on this CD are of course the title track, "Cut It Away", and "Say It Isn't True". It's one of those CD' you can listen to straight through without skipping a track. But then again it is Jackson Browne what else do you expect?


If you like JB but not this album, you don't get it   October 17, 2003
 5 out of 7 found this review helpful

JB came out of the personal folk-rock tradition of James Taylor, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Joni Mitchell, and the Eagles. By the late '70's he was changing directions (The Pretender, Hold Out) and a lot of his fans were disappointed (Disco Apocalypse has to be his alltime worst song). With Lawyers in Love JB doesn't go back to his folk acoustic days but finds a good style with good rhythms, driving guitars and melodic organs.

Some reviewers cringe at the title song but after Tender is the Night I think it's the best one on the album. I find it to be a continuation of the Pretender theme: disillusioned grown-ups from the '60's succumbing to the materialism of the '80's. This lyric snippet is one of my favorites:
God sends his spaceships to America, the beautiful
They land at six o'clock and there we are, the dutiful
Eating from TV trays, tuned into to Happy Days
Waiting for World War III while Jesus slaves
To the mating calls of lawyers in love

Of course, the soulfulness and beauty of Tender is the Night has to be considered the high point of this album and one of JB's best musical achievements. The gentle opening and JB's voice as he sings still gives me the chills:
Between the darkness on the street
And the houses filling up with light
Between the stillness in my heart
And the roar of the approaching night
So, if you gave up on Mr. Browne long ago, you might want to revisit this one--I hope you find it was worth it!