The sad songs are so good here and the one-two punch in the opening would be impossible for almost any artist to maintain. Such is the case here as the wheels kind of fell off for me with the song "It Was a Pleasure Then," but then I do feel like the album recovers pretty well and finishes strong with the Lenny Bruce eulogy. Great sounding record across the board though! Love the guitar sounds. Random comparison: this album made me think about Jeremy Enigk's "Return of the Frog Queen." Sort of a spin on acoustic/folk music, with a strange voice people either love or hate, and orchestration runs through most of it. Probably shouldn't work, but it does somehow. I dig it.