Warming Up to the Ice Age

Warming Up to the Ice Age
Studio album by John Hiatt
Released	January 1985
Genre	Rock
Length	38:51
Label	Geffen
Producer	Norbert Putnam
John Hiatt chronology
Riding with the King (1983) Warming Up to the Ice Age (1985) Bring the Family (1987)

Warming Up to the Ice Age is singer-songwriter John Hiatt's seventh album, released in 1985. It was his last album with Geffen Records, who dropped Hiatt after the album failed to chart. It was the last Hiatt studio album to miss the Billboard 200. "The Usual" would later be covered by Bob Dylan and by George Thorogood & The Destroyers. "Living a Little, Laughing a Little", originally a hit for The Spinners, was a duet with Elvis Costello.

During the recording of the album Hiatt was still doing drugs and drinking which, he felt, diminished the quality of the album and also meant he was short on material. "The wholeness got dissipated by my personal problems, and I think that kind of showed up on 'Warming Up to the Ice Age'. I was drinking and drugging a lot and eventually I was consumed by it. After 'Ice Age' I got sober."^[1] Influencing Hiatt's decision to become sober was the birth of his daughter Lilly in 1984. Shortly after giving birth to Lilly, Hiatt's estranged wife committed suicide, leaving him a single father. Hiatt remained sober throughout the "Warming Up to the Ice Age" tour, which he called a "scary experience".

The album failed to build on the critical momentum of its predecessor, Riding with the King, and Hiatt found himself without a label as Geffen dropped him from their roster.