GLEN CAMPBELL Meet Glen Campbell (Capitol) Rating: NNN
The sleeve sticker says the surprisingly sussed song selection for this Glen Campbell comeback bid – with tracks written by the Velvet Underground, Replacements, Foo Fighters, Green Day and U2 – was “hand-picked by Glen,” contrary to what Campbell writes in the liner notes, thanking producer Julian Raymond (Fastball, Wallflowers) for having “hand-picked each song.” We’ll go with the latter, since Raymond also built the band around Roger Joseph Manning Jr. and Jason Falkner, neither of whom Campbell could’ve selected from a police lineup.
So Campbell had some help getting back on track. The important thing is that he never comes off like he’s trying on his son’s skateboarding shorts. Whatever he’s been through, the guy is still a badass guitar picker and masterful song stylist who puts his own unique stamp on everything he touches. Even the John Lennon and U2 numbers wind up sounding like he wrote them. This isn’t exactly Johnny Cash doing Nine Inch Nails, but it’s a helluva lot better than you might expect.
