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The Bellevue Years by
Christine Lavin!
Critic's Review
Denise Sullivan, All Music Guide
Lavin's lost EP Husbands and Wives and Another Woman's Man are compiled with previously unreleased live radio interviews and songs recorded at the sessions for what's essentially an '80s career retrospective (it was also a period when Lavin had a day job at New York's Bellevue Hospital and, thus, the title). You can't beat Lavin for sarcasm, humor, and heartbreak and it's all here, from the sharp "If You Need Space, Go to Utah" to the tearjerker "The Vacation of Their Lives." Lavin fingerpicks her way through the pure folk, but comedy (of the long lost Steve Goodman variety) may be her strong suite; the self-explanatory "Cold Pizza For Breakfast," the anti-nature "Camping," and the ode to marital aids "Artificial Means" are gut-busters.