4 Jackson Browne Albums With Sensational Starts and Finishes

It’s not a hard and fast rule that’s true every single time. But great albums generally start with a wonderful song and finish with one as well. Jackson Browne seems to have taken that maxim to heart.

Time and again throughout his wonderful career, Browne has started and finished albums in spectacular fashion. If you don’t believe this, check out these shining examples.

‘Jackson Browne’

Browne opened his recording career with one of the finest debuts by a singer-songwriter ever delivered. Granted, he was an industry vet by then, as he’d written several songs that were recorded by other top artists. Still, the assured nature of the Jackson Browne album is something to behold. “Jamaica Say You Will” starts it off in seemingly laid-back form, as Browne sings of idyllic romance. It flows so smoothly you’re unprepared for when it all falls apart at the end. “My Opening Farewell”, by its title alone, suggests a bittersweet closing song. And it truly delivers on that end. Browne’s narrator preemptively strikes on a breakup, knowing that the end is inevitable.

‘Late For The Sky’

Browne’s third album, Late For The Sky, stands as perhaps the absolute pinnacle of the singer-songwriter heyday of the early 70s. That despite not delivering anything close to a hit single. These songs were just too deep, and maybe too painful in their honest assessments, for mass consumption. The title track, with Browne stretching those elongated vowel songs to the brink, sums up the disappointment of an entire generation. After several other gems in the interim, “Before The Deluge” finds Browne voicing environmental concerns with effortless eloquence. David Lindley’s fiddling sends the album out with one more standout flourish.

‘Running On Empty’

By 1977, the live album had become a somewhat stale exercise in the world of rock and roll. Browne found an ingenious way to spice the whole thing up. Why not record an album of new songs live? And why not extend the “live” vibes to unorthodox locations apart from the stage? Running On Empty proved an unlikely masterwork at a time when Browne wasn’t exactly brimming with material. He did have the title song, which starts the album out with a grand statement. In the closing moments, he turns to the medley, an old live LP standby. “The Road”, a salute to his crew and his fans, segues into the old doo-wop staple “Stay” for a crowd-pleaser of a finish.

‘I’m Alive’

I’m Alive, released in 1993, found Browne writing again about the perils of romance with a focus that he hadn’t shown since the 70s. Maybe that was understandable, considering he was coming off a difficult breakup with actress Daryl Hannah. The album proves that his touch with heartbreak songs hadn’t deserted him. On the title track, he starts the story in the aftermath. Browne tries to reassure those around him, and perhaps himself, that he came out the other side OK. After mustering up a torrent of emotions throughout the album, he closes out the record with “All Good Things”. It’s a resigned declaration that tries to rationalize the bottomless sorrow of it all.

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