Jackson Browne - Downhill From Everywhere (2021)

Jackson Browne has always been a seeker. Not that he's opposed to writing a catchy melody or having a hit single (both of which he's done repeatedly), but Browne's always wanted his music to make a difference, to say something important, to express through his eyes the human condition. On Downhill From Everywhere, his 15th album, and first in six years, Browne is who he has always been: the earnest, bittersweet, careful songcrafter who needs to find truth and meaning. It's a reality he acknowledges in the very SoCal opening track, "Still Looking for Something" where he admits he's "way out over my due date," and yet still searching for "something he can hold up to the light," concluding that if all he finds is "freedom" it's alright. Not quite strong enough to be the hooky hit he was probably hoping for, the first single "Cleveland Heart" is another typical Browne construct, about an organ he clearly thinks is at the center of human folly and triumph. While Browne visits Spain in the lively and Latin-flavored "A Song for Barcelona" and Haiti in "Love is Love," he returns to American shores and rocks hard in the title track where the fruited plain, K street, and acronyms including the NRA, GOP, and ICE, reflect "man's ambition and vanity."