To Satisfy You is one of Steve Young's most curious recordings. Well-known as a songwriter's songwriter, there is only one original on the set (The River and the Swan) and it's the last track on the album. In addition, for those who view Young -- mistakenly -- as a country artist, his cover of Buddy Holly's Think It Over that opens the disc will be a rude awakening. It rocks, rolls, slips, and strolls with Young digging into his blues voice for the heart of the lyric. It isn't cute; it's razor-wire sharp and brutal. His funky version of Waylon Jennings' To Satisfy You, with its Mack Truck slide guitars, must have done Waylon proud. This is rock roll that Ronnie VanZandt from Lynyrd Skynyrd would be proud of, given that Young is from Alabama. Walter Vinson's Top of the World is offered in a similar funky treatment before Young turns the Jagger/Richards nugget No Expectations into an outlaw country rock anthem before finishing the side with Dave Olney's amazing tome The Contender. The whole song is in overdrive; it's Jerry Lee Lewis meets Bob Dylan and the Band live. Corrina Corrina is given a fairly faithful treatment, though it's bright in the same way that latter-day outlaw country music is bright. There's plenty of swing and guts, but there's polish too. Jesse Winchester's All Your Stories is given a faithful low-key treatment, and Young makes the song his own. The biggest surprise here is the cover of Cat Stevens' Wild World, completely reinvented from the ground up with ringing guitar solos bringing in the vocal a full two choruses in. The melody is close, but the tempo is up; the twin leads transform it into an indictment instead of a romantic swan song. W.T. Davidson's They Call It Love is too saturated in reverb to be very effective, despite the fact that it's a quality blues song. Finally, Young's own tune is a haunting love song of contradiction and epic proportion as seen through the eyes of the personal. It's a beautiful example of a love song that considers love for the sake of the other rather than as self-fulfillment. Young's voice is strong, ringing deep and wide, with the musical backing painting it for effect. A fine, if confounding, effort, To Satisfy You is one that Young's fans will embrace readily, but does not serve as an introduction to newcomers. ~ Thom Jurek, Rovi

1		Think It Over
2		To Satisfy You
3		Top of the World
4		No Expectations
5		The Contender
6		Corinna Corrina
7		All Your Stories
8		Wild World
9		They Call It Love
10		The River and the Saw

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