Quit Smoking Monday

''...Bob Geldof is better known for his humanitarian work (Nobel Prize nominee, knighted Live Aid head) than for his few surviving Boomtown Rats hits, such as the killing-spree monologue “I Don’t Like Mondays.” His solo records have been shockingly uninteresting, but this one provokes an unseemly tabloid fascination: It’s his first since wife Paula Yates left him for INXS’s Michael Hutchence, both of whom later died ignominiously. For Geldof, 47, Sex, Age & Death is a midlife-crisis tale strong enough to reward repeated listens. Sir Bob quotes Bob Dylan on the bilious “One for Me” and does a dead-on Leonard Cohen for the elegantly wasted “Pale White Girls” and “10:15.” The personal lyrics make these echoes of Geldof’s heroes sound heartfelt rather than affected....''

SEX AGE & DEATH