Dory Previn's third United Artists album was surprisingly easy to enjoy, given that all of side two was given over to a song cycle about her psychotic father. Her alliance with producer Nik Venet was still far from stale, and the exemplary, fluid string and horn arrangements gave Previn's songs a fuller, warmer texture. "Doppelganger," a thrilling "evil twin" narrative, ranks among her most memorable work, and although she loses her footing on some rather tuneless filler (fine material by another artist's standards, below par by hers), Previn hits her stride by returning to a subject close to her heart: her frightful father. Side two's five-song suite, subtitled "Taps, Tremors and Timpesteps," is a revelation. The heartbreaking realization that her parents' vile behavior has spoiled and soured all Previn's subsequent relationships lives on in the memory. She finally absolves her father, but not before attacking him with one of her finest stanzas: "A great grey frog now crouches/On the throne of a former prince/And its endless croaking...croaking/Has no power to convince."
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