Warren Zevon finally arrived at stardom with Excitable Boy (1978), but the self-titled album he released two years earlier announced the presence of a rising talent. Zevon was playing piano in an expatriate's bar in Spain when his old pal Jackson Browne lured him back to California, where he gained a recording contract. Browne's too-slick Los Angeles production for this album did his friend no favors, but could not obscure the unique merit of songs such as "Mohammed's Radio" and "Carmelita." For once the second disc of bonus tracks is illuminating, suggesting that Zevon might have been better served producing himself.
