["Old Dan's Records" is] rather a daring album, representing considerable growth, with no accompanying loss of taste or of any of Lightfoot's other virtues. True, one of the most satisfying cuts is It's Worth Believin', the kind of tightly paced ballad—in the tradition of Early Morning Rain and Second Cup of Coffee—that Lightfoot does better than anyone, but most of the rest of this album is not so easily hooked up with preconceptions about what Lightfoot's music is.

My Pony Won't Go is a near-blues thing, with lyrics that metaphorically broach a subject that I don't think pop music has tackled before (no, I won't spoil it for you). Lazy Mornin' has Lightfoot, in the manner of Randy Newman, assuming a viewpoint he does not agree with, that of a complacent suburbanite. That Same Old Obsession draws a subtle unstated parallel with an old hymn that...