Album of the Week Review: You Don't Mess Around With Jim (1972) by Jim Croce

If I could save time in a bottle, I'd save these incredible 33 minutes I spent listening to Jim Croce's third album, You Don't Mess Around With Jim. 

Jim Croce portrait in 1972. PHOTO: Paul Wilson

In full transparency, as a 22-year-old, I had limited exposure to Croce before listening to and researching this album. However, I have to thank X-Men: Days of Future Past for inspiring this listen and introducing me to his hit song, Time in a Bottle. 

With the kind of voice that transports you instantly to a rocking chair on a Georgia porch, Jim Croce captures a nostalgic charm with this album reminiscent of a simpler time. The record balances highs and lows, with songs like Rapid Roy (The Stock Car Boy) that make you want to line dance like you're wearing a scuffed pair of cowboy boots and somber numbers like A Long Time Ago that are basked in reflectiveness. 

Time is an interesting through line in this album. Croce seems almost presentiment, sadly passing away only a year after his breakout success with this project. Many songs reminisce on time or love lost, most infamously Time in a Bottle, where he expresses its ever-escapist nature. Despite the pangs of longing, there's another aspect of optimism about the passage of time. The closer, Hey Tomorrow, and track two, Tomorrow's Gonna Be A Brighter Day, project this acceptance with the former saying, "I'll have a new day if she'll have me." 

Croce flexes a unique ability to drop you in a narrative. His references feel of the time but contemporary in relatability. Operator (That's Not the Way It Feels) rings this way in particular. Though the idea of calling an operator may be unfamiliar to us now, you understand that the call operator is just another interference between Croce and his ex-lover. Everyone has felt the need to want to call an ex and say, "Hey! I'm doing so much better now!" despite hearing a dial tone on the other line. 

Where this album really shines is its conciseness. Photographs and Memories master this in particular. It's a story that doesn't overstay its welcome, with the song barely passing two minutes. The quick lyrics are vague but masterful, rooting you in his experience. In many such cases on this record, Croce allows the listener to project their own experiences in between the lines of his story. 

This record remains a shining star in Croce's discography, staying on the Billboard 200 for 93 weeks, the longest of any of his projects. His legacy lives on with his two #1 hit songs and his induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1990. 

This is an album I will recommend at every opportunity and one I will certainly return to. If there's one thing Jim Croce is right about, it's that he doesn't mess around. 

My Three Favorites

1. Time in a Bottle 

Unfortunately, nothing will ever top this song. It's understandable why it is the standout, generation-spanning hit from the record. 

2. Operator (That's Not the Way It Feels) 

3. Photographs and Memories