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Release Me is Lyle Lovett's contract-ending album with Curb Records. This comes after a quarter century of creative partnership with the label. Or was it imprisonment? Look at the album cover to your right, and consider Tim McGraw's break with Curb over his own last album.

Mix or Mess?

Anyone who's listened to "L.A. County" knows Lovett delights in double meanings and arch understatements. When Billboard asked Lovett about his exit from Curb, he replied that he hoped that Release Me would be a "punctuation mark for this whole part of my career."

What that means, on the surface, is a roundup of songs we've heard before. As a music writer, your warning sirens go off when you learn a new release is composed of recycled material from Christmas albums, fresh recordings of touring covers, and punches the last ticket on a largely unprofitable contract.

A clue to the album's less sinister design comes with the opening instrumental, "Garfield's Blackberry Blossom." It's reminiscent of the fiddle overtures found on early country medicine shows. Stars like Hank Williams would sing originals, standards, and religious songs to radio listeners while shilling cure-alls for con men. A little bit of art and a little bit of commerce.

A Tasting Platter

Taken as a tour through his repertoire, the album works. Lovett's leisurely take on Chuck Berry's "Brown Eyed Handsome Man" lays bare the racial implications of the rapid-fire original. "Keep It Clean" is bawdy between the lines, covered with soap and coated in grime.

Fans of Lovett's Big Large Band band will take to "Isn't that So," written by Jesse Winchester.

"Have to go where your heart says go. Isn't that so?" he sings. "Understand You" is a stately love song that fans of Pontiac will enjoy. That's also the case with "One Way Gal." "Dress of Laces" is reminiscent in feel if not sentiment with "God Will."

"White Freightliner Blues," one of the album's standout tracks, turns the Townes Van Zandt song into a Grand Ole Opry hoedown.

Better still is k.d. lang's duet with Lovett on the Ray Price favorite "Release Me." The mid-tempo trotter is among the album's most assured cuts, which can't be said of quot;Baby Its Cold Outside" and originally released on the EP Songs for the Season. Lovett's semi-croon is acceptable but Kat Edmonson sounds like David Sedaris impersonating Billie Holiday.

Reheated Originals

When the first line to a song is "I met a hooker at the grocery store," you know you're in good hands. The jaunty and salacious "Girl with the Holiday Smile" was also on Lovett's earlier Christmas EP, but it definitely deserves to be here. "Night's Lullaby," the album's other "original" features vocals assists from Sara and Sean Watkins.

The gospel tune "Keep Us Steadfast" offers us the benediction for this trip with Lovett through his musical terrain, and a preface to where he'll be headed.

Worth It?

Lyle Lovett has never performed in a consistent style. He's hopped from scattershot cowboy songs to oddball Western swing. Release Me's sampling course doesn't feature his best dishes (taking this analogy to the breaking point, I know), but it's sure to tide fans over for what might follow.

Best Songs on Release Me

• "Brown Eyed Handsome Man" (purchase/download)
• "The Girl with the Holiday Smile" (purchase/download)
• "Release Me" (purchase/download)

Track List for Release Me

1. "Garfield's Blackberry Blossom"
2. "Release Me"
3. "White Boy Lost in the Blues"
4. "Baby, It's Cold Outside"
5. "Isn't That So"
6. "Understand You"
7. "Brown Eyed Handsome Man"
8. "Keep It Clean"
9. "One Way Gal"
10. "Dress of Laces"
11. "The Girl with the Holiday Smile"
12. "Night's Lullaby"
13. "White Freightliner Blues"
14. "Keep Us Steadfast"

Release Date: February 28, 2012