by William Ruhlmann
The Painter continued Anka's attempt to create a body of mature love songs. For the most part, he continued to approach romance from the usual angles -- love/happy, love/sad, love/missing you -- but his couples were grown-up, '70s people: &I'm sure you've had your share of other lovers,& and Anka acknowledged in &(You Bring Out) The Best In Me,& going on to express his own devotion in terms of endurance. &I'm not saying I'm unlike all the others,& he added, but &I'm still here.& It was such declarations on the album's best songs, such as the chart single &Happier& and &I'll Help You,& that brought depth to the record. None of this put him on a par with, say, Paul Simon in the singer-songwriter sweepstakes, but it did show him to be a craftsmanlike lyricist who could inject unusually poignant meaning into otherwise stereotypical sentiments. Unfortunately, the album contained no hit on the scale of &(You're Having) My Baby& or &Times Of Your Life,& and Anka's commercial second wind began to dissipate.