Released on Gaff Music in 2002.

This is the most recent Walter Egan solo studio album, released the same year as The Malibooz's Beach Access and The Brooklyn Cowboys' Dodging Bullets.

Stylistically, this album is not as eclectic as its predecessor, 1999's Walternative. However, while I still maintain that Walternative is Egan's magnum opus, this is a worthy follow up. The sound of many of the songs are heavily influenced by the country and folk scene in the Nashville area, where Walter Egan makes his home. Also prevelant on many songs, as the title suggests, is the influence of calypso music. Other songs display a harder, more rocking sound than even much of Egan's solo work from the 1980's. Altogether, these sounds make for an excellent listening experience. Favorites include "Wanting You," "Rain in Tennessee," "You Pay for Love," and "Love is in Your Veins."

All this being said, I do have one complaint about the album - the song "Only Love is Left Alive." We previously heard an early version of the track on Mad Dog and, in that form, it is one of my favorite Egan tunes. Here, however, something just isn't right. At first I thought perhaps it was the music (which has been slowed somewhat from the earlier version) but the more I listened to it, the more I realized that it's the backing vocal that bothers me. The version on Mad Dog features backing vocals by Fleetwood Mac's Christine McVie. Here, the vocal is provided by Samantha Murphy who, despite sounding wonderful on "You Pay for Love," sounds almost masculine on this track.

On a more positive note, there is a hidden song (the title is not provided but Walter calls it "Rockababy Mama") at the end of track 13 that's a little unusual in that we don't normally hear Egan doing rockabilly music. He does it well, though, so if you're listening to this disc you'd be well advised not to hit the stop button after "Lullaby."

Another thing of interest is that the full title of this album is Apocalypso Now: Songs & Stories by Walter Egan. The liner notes to this album do not make any mention of the music at all. Instead, Egan has taken the opportunity to use it to publish a collection of his short stories. Some of these are decidedly fictional (even venturing into science fiction) but it is unclear what category the rest fall into. They may be non-fiction or even fictionalized accounts of real events. I suppose only he knows for sure. At any rate, these too are enjoyable - if a little unusual.