Son Of Schmilsson - NILSSON***

Take 54/Remember (Christmas)/Joy/Turn On Your Radio/You're Breakin' My Heart/Spaceman/The Lottery Song/ At My Front Door/Ambush/I'd Rather Be Dead/The Most Beautiful World In The World

Son Of Schmilsson was a quick follow up to his very successful similarly titled previous album. Unfortunately it is let down by too many failed attempts at humour, some not always in the best of taste. (US:12 UK:41)

“Remember and You're Breaking My Heart are beautiful ballads, vocally exquisite. Joy is a hokey country number that’s fun, as is the music hall pastiche I'd Rather Be Dead enhanced by an OAP vocal section. Harry was clearly taking some risks and having some fun with his new found fame. Not much of the rest sticks, the rockier numbers remind me of 70s beach; the mellow Lottery Song is the best of the other tracks, dripping with requisite irony.”

“There’s a lot of pop competence and bitter jokes on this album, but so very little substance. Joy, the bouncy and indirectly media-critical Spaceman and maybe some of the gentler pop ballads are genuinely good stuff. But more than half of the album is Nilsson mindlessly goofing off, unwilling to care for quality if it doesn’t just happen.”

“This record is just too jokey. More than half the songs have weird or silly punch lines attached to them, either musically or lyrically. This would be okay if the jokes were at least slightly funny, but they're not most of the time.”

“There's no great hit single, there are no great covers and the songwriting is mostly sub standard. The running order goes up tempo-ballad-up tempo-ballad-up tempo... all the way through the album, this soon becomes a very predictable and a somewhat boring listen.”

“The songs and the arrangements are only OK. The comedic elements are entertaining but do not make up for the absence of song craft. Joy is quite clever, but I'd Rather Be Dead, with its elderly choir, is something of a cheap joke.”

“This album is essential for even the most casual listeners, although I can see why certain people were turned off by it. As it says in the liner notes, Harry would take the most pop sounding, radio friendly songs and then throw in lyrics that would guarantee no radio station would play them. It was as if Harry was trying to avoid stardom. But the songs are still incredible.”