Label: Oh Boy / Thirty Tigers
Reissued 2016, originally released 1999
The songwriter's songwriter takes a curious turn with his first studio album since 1995's Lost Dogs & Mixed Blessings with this collection of duets (mostly covers). “On In Spite Of Ourselves, PRINE penned only the hysterically coarse title track, opting instead to coo a slew of classic lovin'-and-losin' country tunes with IRIS DEMENT, LUCINDA WILLIAMS, EMMYLOU HARRIS, CONNIE SMITH, TRISHA YEARWOOD, MLEBA MONTGOMERY, PATTY LOVELESS, FIONA PRINE, and DOLORES KEANE. Given PRINE's ragged-but-right voice, the effect is something akin to casting a grizzled character actor opposite Katherine Hepburn in The Philadelphia Story. And you know what? It'd probably still be a charming (albeit very different) movie, because romantic comedies, like country duets, are all about chemistry, which is something In Spite Of Ourselves has in excess” – Rolling Stone.