Lives in the Balance is the eighth album by Americansinger/songwriterJackson Browne, released in 1986. It reached number 23 on The Billboard 200 chart. The title track as well as "For America" and "In the Shape of a Heart" were released as singles. The album was ranked number 88 on Rolling Stone'slist of the best 100 albums of the 1980s. The album reached number 2 in Sweden.
History
Lives in the Balance was the first album by Browne where overtly political and socially critical songs dominated, although it also included one of his best remembered songs about relationships, the tragic "In the Shape of a Heart", inspired by his relationship with his first wife. The radio play garnered by "For America" and "In the Shape of a Heart", and the use of "Lives in the Balance" in the showMiami Vice, gained him many new fans who later went back and discovered Browne's earlier works. The lesser commercial success of the album, according to a Rolling StoneNovember 1989 article, hardly mattered to Browne: "I like this album as much as any I've ever done," Browne said. "And there's a certain comfort, a security that I have, talking about something that I feel this strongly about. And whether or not an album succeeds wildly or not, that's intact." The album was certified as a gold record in 1986 by the RIAA.
Reception
Critical press focused on the political direction of Lives in the Balance. Music critic William Rulhmann wrote retrospectively "...if Browne sounded more involved in his music than he had in some time, the specificity of its approach inevitably limited its appeal and its long-term significance." Critic Robert Christgau also commented in a similar vein: "The difference is that Browne shouldn't be doing this... he's a pop star who's stretching his audience and endangering his market share merely by making such a statement in 1986. And he's thought hard getting here—not only does his way with words render these lyrics somewhat deeper than Holly Near's, but his moralistic put-downs have that edge of righteous anger nobody's yet found the formula for." The Rolling Stone Record Guide wrote that "the title track is a cutting slice of social observation, but the remainder of the album is muddled. For the first time, Browne seems unsure of himself." However, the original 1986 Rolling Stone review by Jimmy Guterman praised the album over-all in part because of Browne's "new-found ability to link the personal to the political," which "breathes life" into the songs and "prevents them from becoming too didactic. Browne's not just writing about the headlines; he's trying to tell the stories of the people they affect."
