Compass Point (album)

Compass Point is an album released by country musician David Allan Coe.

Thom Jurek of AllMusic contends, “With Bledsoe's gritty, in-your-face, performance-based approach and Sherrill's polish and sense of space and texture, they were able to balance all of the inherent contradictions in Coe's music, from the gorgeous balladry of ‘Gone,’ ‘Heads or Tails,’ and the elaborately arranged dark honky tonk of ‘Merle and Me’ (not Haggard) to the rocking bluegrass stomp of ‘Honey Don't’ and the boozy Tex-Mex swagger of ‘Lost.’”[2] Musically, several of the songs on Compass Point look to the Caribbean, with shuffling back-beats and breezy rhythms, such as on “Loving Her (Will Make You Lose Your Mind)” and the tongue-twisting closing track.

“Honey Don’t” sounds like Coe striking back at anyone who would dare question his musical credentials (“I’ve been a roadie for Satan, honey/I was the sound man for the Devil…”) and includes the repeated line “Honey don’t you pull that shit on me,” a rare expletive on a major label country record at the time.

Opener “Heads or Tails” ruminates on the chance nature of romance, with Coe singing the title in a Johnny Cash drawl.

AllMusic: "As a coda to a decade that went by in a blur of fame, success, madness, tragedy, and disappointment, Coe left it on a very high note with an album that looked brightly to the future.