If I'm learning anything about Harry Chapin as I plow through his discography, it's this: When he was good, he was great. And when he was bad, he still had his good moments.

His studio output to this point I've found to be uneven; one album would show growth was needed (Heads & Tales), the next would be giant leaps forward (Sniper And Other Love Songs). So, it shouldn't be much of a surprise that Short Stories, Chapin's third release, would be a step backwards.

The disc is notable for two songs: "W*O*L*D" (which was - and still is - far more accurate of a description of the life of a radio disc jockey than they'd care to admit) and "Mr. Tanner," the latter being another hidden gem among Chapin's work.

I'd like to say that these two songs are enough to power this album... but that would not be an honest assessment. The remaining tracks range from plain uninteresting to good ideas that hadn't quite fully developed yet. In the latter category we find "Mail Order Annie," a track which would take on new life thanks to Greatest Stories: Live in a few years' time. Likewise, "They Call Her Easy" has a moral message behind it, which unfortunately is buried behind some unimpressive performances.

In fact, Short Stories's biggest flaw is that it is unimpressive. "Old College Avenue," "Song For Myself" and the title track all have the feeling that they weren't fully developed to the point that listeners had come to expect from Chapin. Perhaps it was because he tried moving away from the nine-minute epics and focused on brevity. That's all well and good... except quality also took a hit. I'm not going to say these are bad songs by any means, but they hardly inspire me as a listener to go back and listen to them repeatedly. Frankly, that's a shame, because sometimes it was in multiple listens that Chapin's magic shone through; these don't give that a chance to take root.

That said, Short Stories does demonstrate Chapin's growth as a storyteller in "Mr. Tanner," a song that shows just how damaging what a critic says (cough, cough) can be to an artist. It's an amazing amount of power packed in to a five-minute song, but it showcases the power that Chapin had when he had everything polished.

Chapin's glory days were just ahead of him, and Short Stories should have been the logical step towards that level of superstardom. As it is, it has moments of brilliance, but otherwise falls a bit flat. And that, children, is the greatest sin this one commits.

Rating: C

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