Suspending Disbelief

Suspending Disbelief
Studio album by Jimmy Webb
Released	September 7, 1993
Recorded	February–March 1993
Genre	Popular
Length	52:38
Label	Elektra Records
Producer	Linda Ronstadt George Massenburg
Jimmy Webb chronology
Angel Heart (1982) Suspending Disbelief (1993) Ten Easy Pieces (1996)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[1]

Suspending Disbelief is the eighth album by American singer-songwriter Jimmy Webb, released in September 1993 by Elektra Records.^[1]

Production

Suspending Disbelief was recorded in February and March 1993 at The Site and Skywalker Ranch in Marin County, California, Russian Hill Recording in San Francisco, and Johnny Yuma Recording in Los Angeles. The album was mixed at Record One in Los Angeles.

Critical reception

In his review for Allmusic, William Ruhlmann wrote that Suspending Belief contains Webb's "most straightforward, plainspoken writing yet" and that the songwriter "seems better able to perform his music now than at any time in the past."^[1] Ruhlmann continued:

Suspending Disbelief doesn't, like other Webb albums, sound like a series of unrelated songs sung by an adequate vocalist but waiting for better singers to get at them. It sounds like a unified statement by an artist in his own right. At 46, that artist clearly has been around the block a few times, and he's no longer interested in waxing poetic about cakes left out in the rain or space travel; these songs are decidedly down to earth. If the reminiscences leading to the conclusion that he's "Too Young to Die" stake his claim to currency, he actually spends most of the album looking back maturely and somewhat sadly, when he isn't taking others to task for their bad behavior. ... The music never overwhelms the songs. And Webb, whose voice has deepened and coarsened from the wheezy Oklahoma tenor he exhibited 20 years earlier, has gained in confidence and control as a singer, enabling him to put across his material better than he ever did before.^[1]

Track listing

All songs were written by Jimmy Webb, except where indicated.

1. "Too Young to Die" – 5:43
2. "I Don't Know How to Love You Anymore" – 5:05
3. "Elvis and Me" – 5:49
4. "It Won't Bring Her Back" – 3:46
5. "Sandy Cove" – 5:44
6. "Friends to Burn" – 5:01
7. "What Does a Woman See in a Man" – 4:11
8. "Postcard from Paris" – 4:57
9. "Just Like Always" – 3:59
10. "Adios" – 3:30
11. "I Will Arise" (Jimmy Webb, Albert E. Brumley) – 4:46^[1]

Personnel

Music

• Jimmy Webb – vocals, piano, electric piano, synthesizer, arranger, conductor
• Linda Ronstadt – vocals, background vocals
• Skywalker Symphony Orchestra – orchestra
• Steve Lukather – electric guitar
• Dean Parks – guitar
• Ben Keith – steel guitar
• Mario Guarneri – piccolo trumpet, trumpet
• Leland Sklar – bass
• Russ Kunkel – drums, percussion
• Valerie Carter – background vocals
• David Crosby – background vocals
• Leah Kunkel – background vocals
• Craig Fuller – background vocals
• J.D. Souther – background vocals
• Don Henley – background vocals

Production

• Linda Ronstadt – producer
• George Massenburg – producer, engineer, mixing
• Bob Conlon – engineer
• David Gleeson – engineer
• Chris Haynes – engineer
• Nathaniel Kunkel – engineer
• Rail Jon Rogut – engineer
• Kevin Scott – engineer
• Craig Silvey – engineer
• Squeak Stone – engineer
• Bob Fisher – mastering
• Greg Sudmeir – coordination
• Ivy Skoff – production coordination
• Kosh Art – direction, design
• Richie Unterberger – liner notes
• Robbie Buchanan – programming, synthesizer programming
• Robert Blakeman – photography^[1]

References