Romantic Depressive

Produced by Mark Williams and Dixon, the songs were recorded over a period of four years.[7][1] Dixon pulled from a pool of 30 songs.[8] He played most of the instruments.[9] The first half of the album is about romantic relationships; Dixon considered turning Romantic Depressive into a kind of concept album.[1][10] "Lottery of Lives" is about the military draft.[1] "Good Golly Svengali" is an instrumental.[11] "25,000 Days" was cowritten by Marti Jones, Dixon's wife; Sugar Hill had originally wanted an album of Dixon-Jones duets.[12][13] Bland Simpson played piano on "I Should Know Better".[14]

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[9]
The Charlotte Observer	[15]
MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide	[16]
USA Today	[17]

USA Today praised Dixon's "well-crafted songs and bluesy, Southern-soul rasp."[17] The Santa Fe New Mexican called the album "a tuneful journey through the convolutions of a gently twisted sensibility," writing that "the real genius of these songs is how deceptively simple they seem."[12] The St. Louis Post-Dispatch determined that "Dixon once again fashions a sound that mixes the melodic qualities of Beatles-styled pop, the gritty groove of soul and a bit of country twang."[10] Stereo Review stated that "Dixon's subject matter is evenly divided between doleful reminiscences about love's labors and reflections on himself and the world from the vantage point of midlife."[14] The Charlotte Observer opined that "the songs are too laid-back."[15]

AllMusic noted that "everything here sheds new light on old traditions ... the sound is dense without being muddy, snappy without being shallow."[9] The Star-Gazette listed the album among the 10 best of 1995.[18] In 2008, the Pittsburgh City Paper deemed Romantic Depressive "old-school soul-pop."[19]