Lifetime achievement

"As an artist easily criticized for facetiousness, Wainwright has made a remarkably open and heartfelt record here, his droll observations springing naturally from the absurdities of living and dying, rather than being contrived to amuse or appall ... Surprisingly, for an album that spends most of the span of its 15 tracks considering mortality, it's never maudlin and rarely as cynical as his earlier work. More often it's self-effacing, celebratory and, even in its darkest moments, oddly comforting".

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"It carries weight when a venerable artist addresses issues of mortality, and there is undeniable poignancy in [Wainwright's] contemplative acknowledgement that all the "gold records and blue ribbons, bronze statuettes and plaques" amount to "a hill of beans" compared to "the loving cup we long for". But it's not long before [he] is undercutting his own gravitas, rudely celebrating the joys of this world rather than fretting over the next ... The great joy of this late period album is that it doesn't take itself too seriously. Lifetime Achievement is not so much a last will and testament as a bravura insistence on Wainwright's intention to carry on living and loving for as long as he can".

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"Wainwright ponders age and alienation on his spare, spry 31st album".