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Lyle Lovett
My Baby Don't Tolerate
(Curb/Lost Highway)
First Appeared at The Music Box, November 2003, Volume 10, #11
Written by John Metzger
There’s little doubt that Lyle Lovett has carved out his own niche within the
marketplace. Ever since the release of his self-titled debut, he has been
expanding the boundaries of his music by incorporating a wide array of styles —
so much so that he’s managed to defy categorization. He’s too rock ’n‘ roll for
country and too country for rock ’n‘ roll, not to mention the fact that he also
dabbles in blues, gospel, jazz, folk, and Western swing, fusing all of this
together with organic melodies and a wry sense of humor. As a result, he’s never
seen his audience grow to a size commensurate with those of his mainstream
peers, though his fans certainly are far more loyal. It’s safe to say that even
as quirky, Texas-born singer-songwriters go, Lyle Lovett is one of a kind.
After a seven-year hiatus, which found him keeping busy scoring movies and
covering tunes by some of his favorite songwriters, Lovett has returned with
My Baby Don’t Tolerate, and not surprisingly, it contains a little something
for everyone. There’s the elegant cocktail jazz of You Were Always There,
the fiesty barroom blues of the title track, the buoyant country of The Truck
Song, and the rousing gospel of I’m Going to the Place. There are
playful ditties such as Cute as a Bug, and there are stealthy social
commentaries such as Election Day. In other words, it’s a fairly typical
album for Lovett, which seems like a strange thing to say, given that little he
has done in his career has been considered common.
While this sort of eclecticism unquestionably is intriguing, it also happens
to be the downfall of My Baby Don’t Tolerate. To be fair, it’s a
difficult thing to achieve, though Lovett has fared better with it on his
previous efforts. In essence, My Baby Don’t Tolerate simply sounds like a
collection of disconnected songs, placed side-by-side to form a full-length
album. True, they are all good. Some — such as the more straight-forward country
tunes In My Own Mind and Nothing But a Good Ride as well as the
aforementioned gospel tune and its companion I’m Going to Wait — are
downright terrific. In between, however, the tracks just drift along, albeit
quite affably, but none of them ever seem to rise up and pull the whole song
cycle together into one cohesive package.  ½
My Baby Don't Tolerate is available
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Ratings
1 Star: Pitiful
2 Stars: Listenable
3 Stars: Respectable
4 Stars: Excellent
5 Stars: Can't Live Without It!!
Copyright © 2003
The Music Box
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