Would You Take Another Chance on Me? has the number one title track in its languid ballad and "Me and Bobby McGee," which was his first song to crack the pop Top 40 since 1961's "What I'd Say." This suggests
Would You is a softer, poppier album and that's true in general, even if it isn't true in specific to "Me and Bobby McGee," which is loose and muscular in a way the thickly polished LP usually isn't. It harks back to his classic Sun sides and looks forward to his
Southern Roots comeback two years down the road, but much of
Would You Take Another Chance on Me? is slowed by layers of backing vocals, gauzy accouterments that turn this into an album approximating romance, even though it includes gospel ("Thirteen at the Table"), lewd R&B ("Big Blon' Baby"), and a saloon ballad ("Swinging Doors"). ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine