"Though it was released four years before his divorce from Rita Coolidge, Surreal Thing feels like Kris Kristofferson’s breakup album. “The Stranger I Love” and “The Prisoner” are some of the most painful and cynical love songs of his career, while “I Got a Life of My Own” is a declaration of independence imbued with self-loathing. “All we’ve ever owed each other for the time we spent together was the right to know it’s over when it’s gone,” he sings in “It’s Never Gonna Be the Same Again."" Kristofferson’s bitterness reaches a fever pitch on “The Golden Idol,” in which the narrator seethes with resentment at his lover’s success, and it continues with “Eddie the Eunuch,” a savage but hilarious put-down of a music critic. Likewise, there is spite and venom underneath the celebration of “If You Don’t Like Hank Williams.” Although it is at times impetuous, Surreal Thing forms an unintentionally revealing portrait of its author struggling with anger and disenchantment. "