The Confessor is the seventh solo studio album by American rock musician Joe Walsh, released on May 21, 1985 by Warner Bros. Records, and Full Moon Records. It was produced by Grammy Award-winning producer and sound engineer Keith Olsen as well as Walsh himself. The album peaked at number 65 on the Billboard 200.
Album artwork
The cover art for the album features one of a series of similar paintings called Two Men Contemplating the Moon (1819–1820), by the German Romantic landscape painter Caspar David Friedrich, with a grainy photograph of Walsh in behind. The back cover is another painting by Friedrich, Wanderer above the Sea of Fog ().
Composition
The album includes a cover version of Michael Stanley's 1973 song "Rosewood Bitters," which got some FM airplay in the US; Walsh played slide guitar on the original recording which Stanley originally recorded. On this version instead he plays an electric guitar.
"Slow Dancing" is a song written by Loz Netto for Walsh. Netto was the guitarist in the English band Moon from the mid 1970s and the band Sniff 'n' the Tears from the late 1970s.
A variety of styles are explored on this album, including elements of blues, pop, and even Caribbean music. The title song is more in the vein of progressive rock.
Recording
Walsh's new girlfriend Stevie Nicks would get involved with the recording of this album, as her old friend Keith Olsen was hired to produce the album. The superimposed LA session stalwarts like Jim Keltner, Mike Porcaro, Waddy Wachtel, Randy Newman, Alan Pasqua and a lot of musicians Walsh had never worked with before were the musicians who played on the album. However, the only familiar face was Timothy B. Schmit (of the Eagles) who only recorded backing vocals.
Critical reception
Upon its release, the album was poorly received by many critics but sold quite well. Guitar World critic Bruce Malamut wrote that the album is "the apologia of a strictly raised mid-western episcopalian after living in rock and roll sin for 'Fifteen Years' on the road," and that "The balance … is a sober retrospective from rock’s own Harpo Marx." Rolling Stone said that "Walsh is trying to make the kind of record he used to make a decade ago, and the result is, well, out of date, sound [sic] like something out of a 1975 time capsule."
"The Confessor" and "Good Man Down" were the only tracks from this album which were performed live on that tour.