Music Arcades: Jennifer Warnes: Famous Blue Raincoat

I'd been aware of this album for years before I bought it. I'd always been put off by Warnes' association with that buttock-clenching Up Where We Belong. But either I was having one of my occasional Leonard Cohen swoons, or I was reading some review of the best tribute/cover albums that praised this one, or both. Then I saw the customer reviews on Amazon , rave after rave, and that was enough to make up my mind.

I was so disappointed when it arrived. I should have read those reviews closer to pick up warning signs like "a CD for the Hi-Fi Buff to die for. In fact, that's the only real caveat — it sounds SO good on decent equipment, that it may lead the buyer down the hi-fi upgrade path!" or the Wikipedia entry that notes, "The album is considered one of the best-produced of all time, despite its age, and is often used by audiophiles to test or demonstrate high-end stereo equipment to this day."

I can't believe those hi-fi people. Last time I visited one to get a new amplifier, the guy was still proffering me Dire Straits and Eagles CDs for testing purposes — in 2004! — and looked slightly put out when I said, "No, thanks, I bought my own."

I can't stand the way this album sounds, that Big Hair production. It's so rooted in the ugly, ugly 1986 days of recorded music. You know the kind of thing: every guitar solo conjures images of Tom Cruise and Kelly McGillis in your mind's eye, and they're smiling the devil's smile.

That's just the way I heard it. Even Cohen himself, when he joins for a duet guest spot, has had the rich grain of his voice polished away.

My friend Steve saw on Last.fm that I'd been listening to this, and said he'd bought two copies, loaned two copies and got none back. I've offered him mine.