The title track on Joe Walsh’s new “Analog Man” kicks the album off with one of the unfortunate tropes of contemporary classic rock — lamenting the newfangled stuff the kids are doing and pining for simpler times. The first line contains the groan-inducing term cyberspace, and the song contains crotchety old man lyrics like:
The whole world’s glued to the cable TV.
It looks so real on the big LCD.
Murder and violence are rated PG.
Too bad for the children,
They are what they see.
That’s right, children are murderers because of this newfangled cable TV!
Luckily, the track is redeemed via Joe’s trademarked sarcasm and the tune sticks with you as one of the catchiest on the album.
Joe Walsh’s albums often give insight into what his life is like, or at least what he wants us to think it’s like. On 1992’s “Songs for a Dying Planet”, we got to hear what it’s like for Joe to be at a party getting hounded by people who have a vague sense of who he is. On “Analog Man”, we get “Lucky That Way”, a surprisingly personal and less sarcastic take on fame and fortune. He sums it up at the end:
I’ll let you all in on a little secret,
If I can share with you a thing or two.
If you just act just like you know what you’re doing,
Everybody thinks that you do.
The album also contains the latest in the numbered funk series with “Funk #50”, with riffs that are both reminiscent of the classics “Funk #48” and “Funk #49”, but also offering something new. It’s probably the weakest of the three, but definitely a satisfying followup for fans of the prior Funks.
Overall, the album is pretty solid. “India” is a great instrumental track and a great driving song. “Fishbone” is literally a song about someone having a fish bone stuck in their throat.