Album: Glen Campbell, Ghost on the Canvas (Surfdog)

Andy Gill
Friday 26 August 2011 00:00 BST
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Stricken with Alzheimer's, Glen Campbell has announced that this is to be his final album; and there's a profound valedictory tone about it, as songwriters such as Jakob Dylan and Paul Westerberg craft material custom-built for Campbell's situation.

Westerberg's title-track and "Any Trouble" bluntly confront the inevitable, with references to "standing on the threshold of eternity" and "I won't be here long" couched in arrangements that recall the halcyon days of "Wichita Lineman"; but Campbell's own compositions are similarly "My Way"-esque reflections on a life fully lived. It's some measure of the respect in which he's held as a guitarist that celebrated six-string stylists queue up to trade breaks with Campbell, most notably on Teddy Thompson's "In My Arms", featuring surf legends Dick Dale and Brian Setzer.

DOWNLOAD THIS: Ghost on the Canvas; A Thousand Lifetimes

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