JeffVrabel.com

Billboard – 2004’s “License to Chill” was the first No. 1 album of Jimmy Buffett’s three-decade career, so it’s no surprise that he goes country again for a set that’s breezy even by his flip-floppy standards. “Weather” is heavy on covers but boasts a wider palette of them, as Buffett works in Crowded House (“Weather With You,” incongruously featuring Gomez), Mark Knopfler (who penned and plays on the gorgeous “Whoop Dee Doo”), Merle Haggard (“Silver Wings”) and Guy Clark (“Cinco de Mayo in Memphis”). There’s a nice sense of self-awareness here; “It seems I’ve run out of reasons to be here, so I’m just gonna steal from myself,” he smirks in the faux-calypso “Party at the End of the World,” before tossing off a quick rhyme about attitudes and latitudes. For now, Buffett seems to have briefly put off the search for his lost shaker of salt.

• Jimmy Buffett – Elvis Presley Blues.mp3