John Hiatt - Hangin' Around the Observatory/overcoats (CD)

England's Beat Goes On repackages John Hiatt's first two offerings from 1974 and 1975 respectively. There are clues in these albums as to what Hiatt would become at his peak with A&M: the excess in his verbiage and exaggeration of his singing dynamic that would make him a caricature of himself on later records (as on the truly awful Randy Newman rip-off album Living a Little, Laughing a Little in 1996, where it seemed like he was caricaturing Newman but he only really made fun of himself. These records waiver between trying a Van Morrison workout on the former and a James Taylor saccharine on the latter. Only Hiatt diehards will even contemplate this, the rest of his more casual fans should be forewarned. ~ Thom Jurek