How to Become Clairvoyant


How to Become Clairvoyant is the fifth solo release from Canadian singer-musician Robbie Robertson. It was released on April 5, 2011, and peaked at No. 13 on the US Billboard 200 albums chart. Critical reviews were generally positive.
The album features guests Eric Clapton, Steve Winwood, Trent Reznor, Tom Morello, Robert Randolph, Rocco DeLuca, Angela McCluskey, and Taylor Goldsmith of Dawes. Bassist Pino Palladino, keyboardist Martin Pradler and drummer Ian Thomas are the rhythm section on most songs.
Robertson performed "He Don't Live Here No More" on CBS's Late Show with David Letterman and ABC's The View in support of the album, with the band Dawes.

Reception

Greil Marcus wrote in 2017 that How to Become Clairvoyant was "by far Robbie’s best solo album. There’s a directness, a forthrightness, to the singing and the songwriting, and an absence of clutter in the music."
David Fricke of Rolling Stone called it "a return to the ambitious aural cinema and textural explorations of 1987’s Robbie Robertson and 1991’s Storyville" and wrote that "it is fitting that Eric Clapton, who once aspired to join the Band, sings and plays on half of this record. His and Robertson’s grizzled vocals and pointillist guitar exchanges in 'The Right Mistake' and 'Fear of Falling' are sublime roughage, the sound of two men with shared roots still moving forward."
Thom Jurek of AllMusic gave the album mixed praise, writing that it was a "sometimes compelling record, but it's a flawed one, too, with moments of beauty countered by bloated lyrical and production excesses. Ultimately, it feels as much like an exercise in self-justification as it does in personal revelation."

Track listing

All tracks composed by Robbie Robertson; except where indicated
  1. "Straight Down the Line" – 5:19
  2. "When the Night Was Young" – 5:05
  3. "He Don't Live Here No More" – 5:46
  4. "The Right Mistake" – 4:30
  5. "This Is Where I Get Off" – 5:09
  6. "Fear of Falling" – 5:18
  7. "She's Not Mine" – 4:28
  8. "Madame X" – 4:46
  9. "Axman" – 4:36
  10. "Won't Be Back" – 4:10
  11. "How to Become Clairvoyant" – 6:17
  12. "Tango for Django" – 3:50
Deluxe Edition Bonus Tracks
  1. "The Right Mistake"
  2. "He Don't Live Here No More"
  3. "Fear Of Falling"
  4. "This Is Where I Get Off"
  5. "Madame X"
  6. "Houdini"
Super Deluxe Edition Bonus Tracks
  1. "In The War Zone"
  2. "The Magician "
  3. "Madame X"
  4. "The Right Mistake"
  5. "This Is Where I Get Off"
  6. "She's Not Mine"
  7. "Fear Of Falling"
  8. "Catwalk"
  9. "He Don't Live Here No More"
  10. "Won't Be Back"

Personnel