Of all the moderately successful, acoustic guitar-toting singer/songwriters who rose to prominence in the early '70s, Loudon Wainwright III arguably kept it the realest. As acerbic as Randy Newman, as poignant as Neil Young, and as melancholy as Joni Mitchell, Wainwright was a perfect storm who wrote songs that were simply too fucked up for most mainstream ears. "Whatever Happened to Us" is one of the most incendiary eulogies to a deteriorating relationship ever penned ("We used to be in love, but now we're in hate/You used to say I came too early, but it was you who came too late"). At the other end of the emotional spectrum is "Motel Blues," a song that expertly captures the soul-shattering loneliness of "life on the road," and likely blew a fledgling John Darnielle's mind. The problem when you're really talented and witty but sort of a shitty parent: You have really talented and witty kids who direct their resentment toward you in song. See son Rufus Wainwright's heartbreaking "Dinner at Eight" and daughter Martha Wainwright's much more straightforward "Bloody Mother Fucking Asshole." I guess it's the circle of life, or something. MORGAN TROPER