If you haven’t seen any of his myriad appearances on TV talk shows this week, you might not know that my main man, Rick Springfield, has a new album out. Songs for the End of the World was released on Tuesday, and I’m sure none of my Loyal Readers will be remotely surprised to learn I already have my copy. (A couple of them, actually, thanks to an insidious marketing scheme involving different covers and bonus content unique to each variant… oh, well. Such is life as a collector/fanboy.) I like it. It’s a good album. I thought at first it was more of the same thing we got with his last one, Venus in Overdrive, but the more I listen, the more I’m thinking of it as a kind of thematic and sonic sequel to his 2004 release shock/denial/anger/acceptance, only with less rage and hurt, and a bit more humor. It’s kind of like we’re checking in on the “character” from that primal scream of an album a few years later and finding him farther down the road to recovery, a bit happier about his life, but still trying to process the emotional hangover. Which, of course, is a pretty accurate description of Rick Springfield in 2012 versus the 2004 Rick.

But I’m getting ahead of myself here.

You see, I’ve been thinking for quite a while that it might be fun to go through Rick’s entire oeuvre in chronological order, all his official albums — as opposed to the dozens of fly-by-night greatest-hits packages that have been produced since his heyday in the mid-80s, as well as a couple of weird bootleg items I know about — and review them as a recurring feature here on Simple Tricks. Now, before you say something smart-assy like “that shouldn’t take long!,” you should know that Rick has been in this business a lot longer than most people realize. He’s recorded 18 studio albums over a span of 40 years — yes, that’s right, his first record was released in 1972. A long time before anyone ever heard of “Jessie’s Girl.” And that’s just the solo work he’s done here in the United States. He also played and recorded with several bands in Australia before he moved here in search of greater glory. More on that another time, though.

I know going in that this project may not be of much interest to anyone except myself and possibly The Girlfriend. Also, I’ve got to admit I’m really not confident I can pull it off, since music is outside my comfort zone as a writer and a blogger. I love music, especially rock and blues, and I have my opinions about it, obviously, but no actual training in it, no technical knowledge or formal understanding of how it works or why it doesn’t… which means I don’t feel that I have much vocabulary for describing my opinions. But I want to try.

I thought Rick’s music was cool when I was young, then I lost it for a while. I’ve told that story before. But in the 12 years or so since I rediscovered him, it’s become, well, meaningful to me. All the moreso as I’ve learned more about the man and his life and his problems. I don’t see him merely as my guitar hero anymore, but as a guy, a guy not unlike myself, an all-too-human being who has screwed up in some pretty spectacular ways and somehow managed to soldier on through. And I like this guy. His music has evolved considerably over the past 40 years. So has he. I hope my skills are up to the job of analyzing the evolution, and conveying why it matters to me.

As I said, I intend this to be a recurring feature. Hopefully I’ll manage to make it a fairly regular one… I know myself too well to make promises about how frequently it will appear, though. Just keep your eyes open, I guess… assuming you care…