"Endless Wire" is a departure of sorts, but only to about the same degree that "Old Dan's Records" was in its time. The new one, quantitatively measured—by the amplification of instruments and the nature of such songs as I Don't Mind, If There's a Reason, and the verse (but not the chorus) of Endless Wire—is [Lightfoot's] rockingest album yet. But it is really no more Rock than his Nashville one, "Summer Side of Life," was Country.

Lightfoot's other abiding interests, including his feel for the working class and working-class settings, his fondness for narratives, and his preoccupation with the loved one who got away, are all in this one too. His songwriting is everywhere crafty and in spots exceptionally bright. Daylight Katy is a wonder, actually two seemingly unrelated kinds of song successfully combined, and the title song's chorus snares your mind from the straight-ahead rock...