10 Songs for the New Depression

10 Songs for the New Depression
On the left half of a black-and-white album cover, the text "10 Songs for the New Depression" along the top and "Loudon Wainwright III" along the bottom. On the right half, an image of a man with crossed legs sitting on a bench, holding a guitar and an American flag. Behind the man is a "Welcome" sign, a mounted fire extinguisher and a window with the "No Public Restrooms" sign.
Studio album by
Loudon Wainwright III
ReleasedJuly 2010
Genre
Length30:00
LabelProper
Loudon Wainwright III chronology
High Wide & Handsome: The Charlie Poole Project
(2009) 		10 Songs for the New Depression
(2010) 		Older Than My Old Man Now
(2012)

10 Songs for the New Depression is the twenty-first studio album by American singer-songwriter Loudon Wainwright III, released in July 2010 through Proper Records.[2] Released forty years following his first studio album, 10 Songs is Wainwright's first album since his Grammy Award-winning tribute project High Wide & Handsome: The Charlie Poole Project (2009).[2] The concept album was inspired by the financial crisis of 2007–2008 and Great Recession, and features Wainwright backed by his own banjo, guitar and ukulele performances.

Wainwright began writing songs for the album following the inauguration of Barack Obama in January 2009. The album features ten original songs and two cover versions of songs originally written and recorded during the Great Depression. Lyrical references throughout 10 Songs include economists Alan Greenspan, John Maynard Keynes and Paul Krugman, President Barack Obama, and the government program Car Allowance Rebate System (more commonly known as "cash for clunkers"). Overall, critical reception of the album was positive. 10 Songs reached peak positions of number thirty-eight on the United Kingdom's Top Independent Albums chart and number twelve on the Top 40 Independent Albums Breakers chart.

  1. ^ "10 Songs for the New Depression". Allmusic. Rovi Corporation. Archived from the original on June 23, 2012. Retrieved June 21, 2012.
  2. ^ a b Dunnett, Ninian (July 7, 2010). "Loudon Wainwright III 10 Songs for the New Depression Review". BBC Music. Archived from the original on February 11, 2011. Retrieved August 21, 2011.