| Solo | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | March 20, 2020 | |||
| Recorded | 2019 | |||
| Studio | Grant Avenue (Hamilton, Canada) | |||
| Genre | Folk | |||
| Length | 33:01 | |||
| Language | English | |||
| Label | Warner Music Canada | |||
| Producer | Gordon Lightfoot | |||
| Gordon Lightfoot chronology | ||||
| ||||
Solo is the 20th and final studio album by Canadian folk singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot, released on March 20, 2020, three years before his death on May 1, 2023.
Lightfoot had only recorded one album of new material in 20 years prior to this release and the songs are made up from demos that Lightfoot discovered from 2001 and 2002 that he wanted to put to record. [1] After initially trying to orchestrate the songs and re-write several of them, [2] he decided that they were fine as they were and set about to record his first solo album in his decades-long career. [3]
Editors at AllMusic Guide scored Solo 3.5 out of five stars, with critic Mark Deming comparing this favorably to the artist's first recordings in the 1960s and noting that the stripped down recordings were a wise choice: "he may sound weaker than he used to, but he's also not fighting a band for attention, and the sly rounder that populated many of his early tunes is still faintly audible on Solo". [1] In Exclaim! , Iam Gormley rated this album a seven out of 10, concurring that the sparse production techniques complement Lightfoot's softer vocals and opining, "the record showcases what Lightfoot has always done and always excelled at: songwriting". [4]
All songs written by Gordon Lightfoot.
Gordon Meredith Lightfoot Jr. was a Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist who achieved international success in folk, folk-rock, and country music. Credited with helping to define the folk-pop sound of the 1960s and 1970s, he has been referred to as Canada's greatest songwriter, having several gold and multi-platinum albums and songs covered by some of the world's most renowned musical artists. Lightfoot's biographer Nicholas Jennings said, "His name is synonymous with timeless songs about trains and shipwrecks, rivers and highways, lovers and loneliness."
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