Love's Labour's Cost

PERFORMER: JIMMY WEBB

ALBUM: SUSPENDING DISBELIEF

LABEL: ELEKTRA

THE BOTTOM LINE: One of pop's enigmatic figures blazes a trail into the '90s with a pack of glorious love songs.

Could there be any figure in pop harder to type, tougher to place and more impossible to pigeonhole than Jimmy Webb? It shouldn't be so difficult. He writes great love songs; that should serve as a proper introduction. They are full of rich melody, lyrical longing and melancholy -- the kind of songs that need a great musical play and, as often as not, a big orchestra to go along with them.

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