Life Is Messy

Life Is Messy is the seventh studio album released by American country music artist Rodney Crowell, released in 1992 by Columbia Records. It peaked at number 30 on the Top Country Albums chart. The songs, "Lovin' All Night", "What Kind of Love", "It's Not for Me to Judge", and "Let's Make Trouble" were released as singles.

Life Is Messy
Studio album by
Rodney Crowell
ReleasedMay 19, 1992[1]
GenreCountry pop[2]
Length42:27
LabelColumbia
Producer
Rodney Crowell chronology
Keys to the Highway
(1989)		 Life Is Messy
(1992)		 Greatest Hits
(1993)
Alternative cover
2000 reissue cover

Content

The album's first two singles, "Lovin' All Night" and "What Kind of Love", were both released as singles. They respectively reached No. 10 and No. 11 on the Hot Country Songs charts in 1992.[3]

"The Answer Is Yes" was covered by Michelle Wright on her 1996 album For Me It's You, while "Lovin' All Night" was covered by Patty Loveless on her 2003 album On Your Way Home.

Critical reception
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic[2]
Chicago Tribune[4]
Entertainment WeeklyC+[5]

William Ruhlmann of Allmusic rated the album 4.5 out of 5 stars, concluding his review with, "Taken together, the songs on Life Is Messy made for a fascinating portrait of an artist at a personal and professional crossroad -- but it didn't have much to do with commercial country music circa 1992, which is what it was primarily marketed as."[2] He compared the songs' sounds primarily to "a pastiche of late-'50s/early-'60s pop".[2] A review by Jack Hurst in the Chicago Tribune rated the album 3.5 out of 4, saying that the album had "a throbbing sound that is out on the pop-ish progressive end of the country spectrum, it treats life in all its surreal hurtfulness without neglecting its epic joys."[4] A less positive review came from Alanna Nash of Entertainment Weekly, who thought that the album showed emotional influence from Crowell's then-recent divorce from fellow singer Rosanne Cash, and highlighted the song "I Hardly Know How to Be Myself", which the two wrote, as the best song on the album. She also compared Crowell's voice favorably to Roy Orbison but added that "too many of his songs splinter into nebulousness with the occasional joltingly bad line".[5]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Rodney Crowell except where noted.

No.TitleWriter(s)Producer(s)[6]Length
1."It's Not for Me to Judge" 
4:01
2."What Kind of Love"
Larry Klein3:58
3."Lovin' All Night" 
  • Leventhal
  • Crowell
3:50
4."Life Is Messy" 
4:34
5."I Hardly Know How to Be Myself"
  • Leventhal
  • Crowell
4:45
6."It Don't Get Better than This"
  • Crowell
  • Leventhal
Leventhal2:44
7."Alone but Not Alone"
  • Crowell
  • Klein
Klein5:08
8."Let's Make Trouble" Klein4:27
9."The Answer Is Yes" 
  • Leventhal
  • Crowell
4:19
10."Maybe Next Time"
  • Crowell
  • Leventhal
  • Leventhal
  • Crowell
4:58

Personnel

From Life Is Messy liner notes.[6]

Musicians

"It's Not for Me to Judge"
"What Kind of Love"
"Lovin' All Night"
"Life Is Messy"
  • Eddie Bayers - drums, percussion
  • Vicki Hampton - background vocals
  • John Leventhal - guitars
  • Jonell Mosser - background vocals
  • Michael Rhodes - bass guitar
  • C. J. Vanston - keyboards
  • Lari White - background vocals
  • Steve Winwood - background vocals
"I Hardly Know How to Be Myself"
  • Eddie Bayers - drums
  • Barry Beckett - organ
  • John Leventhal - piano, guitars
  • Leland Sklar - bass guitar
"It Don't Get Better than This"
"Alone but Not Alone"
  • Vinnie Colaiuta - percussion
  • Shawn Colvin - background vocals
  • Larry Klein - bass guitar, tremolo guitar, background vocals
  • Steuart Smith - guitars
"Let's Make Trouble"
  • Alex Acuña - drums, percussion
  • Larry Klein - bass guitar, keyboards
  • Reginal Sales - slack drum
  • Steuart Smith - guitars
  • Sam Phillips - background vocals
"The Answer Is Yes"
  • Eddie Bayers - drums
  • Barry Beckett - organ
  • Vicki Hampton - background vocals
  • John Leventhal - guitars
  • Vince Santoro - background vocals
  • Leland Sklar - bass guitar
  • Steve Winwood - background vocals
"Maybe Next Time"
  • Barry Beckett - organ
  • John Leventhal - keyboards, guitar, percussion
  • Larrie Londin - drums, percussion
  • Vince Santoro - background vocals
  • Lari White - background vocals

Technical

  • Michael Brauer - mixing (tracks 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10)
  • Bobby Colomby - production
  • Rodney Crowell - production
  • Jim Dineen - engineering (tracks 1, 6, 10)
  • Larry Klein - production
  • John Leventhal - production
  • Dan Marnien - engineering and mixing (tracks 2, 7, 8)
  • Roger Nichols - engineering (tracks 3, 4, 5, 9)
  • C. J. Vanston - production
  • Michael Verdick - engineering (track 1)

Chart performance

Album
Chart (1992) Peak
position
U.S. Billboard Top Country Albums 30
U.S. Billboard 200 155
Canadian RPM Country Albums 9

Singles
Year Single Peak chart positions
US Country US AC CAN Country CAN CAN AC
1992 "Lovin' All Night" 10 — 9 — —
"What Kind of Love" 11 9 2 47 5
"It's Not for Me to Judge" — — — — —
"Let's Make Trouble" — — 78 — —

Sources
  1. AOL Music Profile for "Life Is Messy"
  2. Ruhlmann, William. "Life Is Messy review". Retrieved 7 March 2017.
  3. Whitburn, Joel (2012). Hot Country Songs 1944 to 2012. Record Research, Inc. pp. 88–89. ISBN 978-0-89820-203-8.
  4. Hurst, Jack (June 25, 1992). "Life Is Messy review". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 7 March 2017.
  5. Nash, Alanna (May 22, 1992). "Life Is Messy review". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 7 March 2017.
  6. Life Is Messy (CD booklet). Rodney Crowell. Columbia Records. 1992. CK 47985.CS1 maint: others (link)
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