Angel Heart (Jimmy Webb album)

Critical response

In his review for AllMovie, William Ruhlmann described the album as "a classic of the style called 'West Coast pop', a creamy adult contemporary sound with a rock edge but plenty of strings, the tasty guitar solos offset by the sweet harmonies". While Ruhlmann acknowledges that "Webb's days as a struggling vocalist are behind him", he points to a unique problem for a Jimmy Webb album—the material. Ruhlmann concluded:

This is simply not the most distinctive batch of songs Webb has ever put on a disc. There are a lot of minor love songs and a few ponderous numbers, while the best compositions are the ones Garfunkel already cherry-picked and did better, "Scissors Cut" and "In Cars". It's fair to say that, by 1982, Webb probably wasn't really expecting to become a star performer, but the session bills for Angel Heart must have been substantial enough for someone to hope this album would sell in big numbers, despite Webb's spotty track record as a recording artist. From a record company point of view, he was a songwriter with a demonstrated ability to write popular songs, and he kept getting contracts because he always seemed just one hit away from making a successful transition to popularity as a singer. If, once again, that transition did not occur, in this case that was more due to a lack of quality content rather than an inability to achieve a commercial sound.

The AllMusic website gave the album three and a half out of five stars.

Track listing

All tracks written by Jimmy Webb, except where noted.