Jimmy Buffett’s latest CD, Buffet Hotel, is a cruel joke. It is not just the fact that the album title purposely misspells his last name to get back at all those who have been pronouncing it wrong. More importantly, for anyone whose average day does not consist of lying in the sand, cruising on a boat, or partying in the tropics–always with a Margarita in hand–the music of Buffet Hotel is an unfair daydream machine. However, it is this lifestyle depicted in Buffett’s music that has electrified the souls of Parrotheads for decades.
Buffet Hotel, his whopping 32nd album, is no different; Buffett’s lyrical quality and incomparable musical performance on the album is airtight. Furthermore, some songs are closer to home than one might think. In the first song on the album, “Nobody from Nowhere,” he has exchanged his usual beach paraphernalia for “farms and fields and cows,” a unique move, and speaks of someone “Waitin’ for a car to drive by / just so you can say ‘hello,'” exemplifying the solitude of a small town atmosphere.
There is a real Buffet Hotel by the way; it is a French colonial inn in Mali, which Buffett happened to visit, and it makes for a great album title. The song “Buffet Hotel” toward the end is much more serious, and has a historical note to it. Buffett sings “Well the train slipped in to the station/ A worn out steel blue soul/ A relic from colonial days/ When the French were still in control,” before singing a line in French.
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n “Wings,” it is easy to get the feeling of Buffett’s easygoing yet restless need for independence, and most likely even alludes to his lesser known pastime of aviation. Songs of this nature are must haves on any Buffett album.
Buffett gives “Big Top” a holiday spin at the beginning of the song by saying that “Just like Santa, [he] come[s] around once a year.” However, one could venture that the rest of the words are less to do with Christmas cheer, and more about the dramatic and chaotic carnival that is life. One could even further venture that Buffett did a better job of covering the “circus” theme than Britney Spears’ attempt.
“Turn Up the Heat and Chill the Ros?” incorporates the joyful sound of the steel drums, an instrumental equivalent to actually being in the islands.
One of the first songs to be leaked from the album was “A Lot to Drink About.” Crudely titled, yes, but the song has deeper meanings, alluding mainly to national issues weighing on everyone these days. He sings, “There’s the price of oil/ the war of the spoils/ Here’s your bucket for the big bailout?/ Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan/ We’ve got a lot to drink about.”
Who knows if anyone but the Malians would deem the real Buffet Hotel a four star place to stay, but that is certainly the rating of the album to which it gave its name. Buffet Hotel brings laid-back, classless charm to a sunshine-starved populace. Even if UW students yearn to “waste away in Margaritaville,” there’s always the similar option of getting wasted in Madison…to the sunny soundtrack of Buffet Hotel.
4 starts out of 5
