John Denver - It's About Time (CD)

All Music Guide

John Denver continued to proselytize for his favorite causes, love, peace, and freedom (in the great outdoors), on It's About Time, but on a personal level he was fending off depression due to the woman who dumped him on his last album, Seasons Of The Heart (presumably his wife Annie, from whom he was divorced in 1983). Then, he had seemed reconciled to the breakup, singing with gentle equanimity about people who just can't get along. By It's About Time, he wasn't keeping up that much of a front. In "Thought Of You," and he called her up in the middle of the night hoping she was alone; in "Falling Out Of Love," he sang of "this sense of failure ... such an incredible loss"; and in "I Remember Romance," he wallowed in his memories. Somehow, though, Denver pulled himself together enough, with the help of his pal Buckminster Fuller, the inspiration for "World Game," and of The Wailers, who played on the track, to go back to preaching universal brotherhood. Emmylou Harris joined him on one... of his patented Western anthems, "Wild Montana Skies," and he called upon God (under various names, naturally) to assist him elsewhere. Unfortunately, Denver hadn't only lost his true love. His fans were deserting him, too. It's About Time was Denver's lowest charting album in 12 years. - William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide Read more Less