Punch the Clock

At times more ear-rending than the much maligned Goodbye Cruel World--thank the blaring horns, which augment an uneven bunch of songs--Punch the Clock nonetheless has its great moments. The searing political statements "Shipbuilding" and "Pills and Soap" are obvious high points (as is Chet Baker's solo on the former), while on the poppier side "Everyday I Write the Book" is sweetly distressed, "Let Them All Talk" definitively defiant, and "The World and His Wife" high-level sneering wordplay. At least a couple of the bonus tracks in Rykodisc's edition, though, trump some of the original Clock's weaker cuts. --Rickey Wright