Fruitcakes is Jimmy Buffett's best recording in some time, for he has a better handle on the Caribbean flavors in his Gulf Coast beach-bum music than ever before. The Grateful Dead's "Uncle John's Band," for example, is completely recast as an easygoing calypso tune, thanks to Robert Greenidge's steel drums and Angel Quinones' congas. Even more radical is the tranformation of "Sunny Afternoon," the Kinks' satire of upper-class luxury which Buffett restates as a celebration of his own lifestyle.
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