Bringing in Mick Ronson on guitar is perhaps the only
brilliant move in McGuinn’s entire lackluster solo career. His songwriting
remains abysmal—the solo-writing-credit “Friend” relies on rhyme schemes
that a fifth grader might come up with—but Ronson brings some pizzazz,
raunching up even the closing Joni Mitchell cover “Dreamland.” McGuinn
occasionally rises to the challenge—zone out a little (easy to do, as it’s
still a McGuinn solo LP) and “Rock and Roll Time” sounds like the Clash. “Partners
in Crime” is a wince-inducing survey of New Left heroes, but the Blood on the
Tracks outtake “Up to Me” is a really smart pick for the requisite Dylan material,
since it was the only version available at the time. For all this, the album
only rates as decent—but that’s enough to qualify as McGuinn’s peak to date.
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