My Ride's Here

1	Sacrificial Lambs 3:55
2	Basket Case 3:37
3	Lord Byron's Luggage 4:35
4	Macgillycuddy's Reeks 3:04
5	You're a Whole Different Person When You're Scared 5:14
6	Hit Somebody! (The Hockey Song) 5:26
7	Genius 5:01
8	Laissez-Moi Tranquille 3:32
9	I Have to Leave 3:05
10	My Ride's Here 3:41

Barnes & Noble

You've always been able to count on Warren Zevon for two things: a deeply etched sense of perversity and a way with some of the most sardonic lyrics in rock. Well, here Zevon employs the former trait to whip up the latter product in typically nonconformist fashion -- he went and hustled some of the edgiest names in literature to write the songs for him! The results are uniformly top-notch and twisted, from the harried "You're a Whole Different Person when You're Scared," a blues-tinged digression that spotlights the paranoid ravings of Hunter S. Thompson, to the frenzied squall of "Basket Case," an interpolation of Carl Hiaasen's fictional Slut Puppies' theme song. Most striking among the bunch is a tune that, on the surface, might be seen as a throwaway, "Hit Somebody (The Hockey Song)," penned by Mitch Albom (of Tuesdays with Morrie fame). It's a genuinely hilarious take on modern-day lunkhead-ism -- with guest vocals from David Letterman to boot. Yes, Zevon exercises his own pen here and there, most successfully on the intentionally ugly celebrity kiss-off "Sacrificial Lambs," but it's the icing provided by the guest chefs that makes this cake so delightfully decadent. David Sprague

All Music Guide

Warren Zevon is famous for black-hearted comedy tunes like "Werewolves of London" and "Excitable Boy," but his best work is a good bit deeper and more penetrating, and 2000's Life'll Kill Ya was an impressive return to form, a song cycle about aging and death that was played less for easy laughs than for the bitter humor derived from the knowledge that no one, the artist included, will get out of this world alive. Zevon's follow-up, 2002's My Ride's Here, for the most part recalls Zevon albums like Mr. Bad Example or Mutineer. My Ride's Here also finds Zevon collaborating with a number of writers from outside the world of music (not the first time he's done this; novelist Tom McGuane co-wrote "The Overdraft" on Envoy). Novelist Carl Hiaasen co-wrote "Basket Case," an ode to an insane girlfriend, while gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson collaborates on "You're a Whole Different Person When You're Scared." Sportswriter Mitch Albom, of all people, turns in the best collaboration on the album, "Hit Somebody! (The Hockey Song)." The sardonic "Genius" and "Sacrificial Lambs," and the title cut -- a meditation on mortality that would have fit in on Life'll Kill Ya -- are strong and remind listeners of just how talented Zevon still is. Mark Deming