Jimmy Buffett, “Equal Strain On All Parts.”

If indeed Equal Strain on All Parts is a final album by Jimmy Buffett – you never know; the Beatles are just now releasing their “last song” – it would be a worthy statement, in keeping with his modus operandi and leaving several moments that resonate.

Yes, you could say the new album is more of the same trusty mix of party songs, autobiographical accounts and serious, clearheaded philosophizing that has buoyed some 30 studio albums over the past 53 years.

But just the fact that after so long Buffett can still pull out nuggets like the title song and “Bubbles Up” is key to why he endured so long, completing this album shortly before his Sept. 1 death from skin cancer.

By this late date, it hasn’t always been easy to remember he’s more than the fearless leader of the Parrotheads, fans dedicated to the gestalt around a lifestyle of tropical island partying (and probably the reason why most of his 15 live releases exist). But that is clearly giving Jimmy Buffett short shrift. A onetime journalist and author of three successful novels, he has always had something to say, even if he took a lot of party detours along the way; an “Audience of One,” he notes lightheartedly but seriously, is indeed better than an audience of none.

And that’s largely the story with Equal Strain on All Parts, on which songs like the title track, about addressing life itself: “Equal strain will ease the pain on backs and brains and hearts,” he sings. Buffett certainly has a way with words, and when he employs his unique outlook to address simple (or not) subject matter, he’s a pretty good philosopher. It’s a similar situation with “Bubbles Up,” a phrase he uses as a metaphor for finding the light amid the dark times of life. And on the dreamy “Columbus,” Buffet tries to put panic at bay with calmness.

Buffett’s exaggerating storyteller persona emerges most clearly on “Close Calls,” where he brags about surviving a fight with Buford Pusser (remember him, the small-town crime-busting Tennessee sheriff of the “Walking Tall” movies?) and admitting “I don’t always use my brain.”

One of Buffett’s talents is that he can move from the serious to the playful and back again almost effortlessly, without diminishing the intended effect of either approach. As Parrotheads know and cherish, he’s a master of both, and as usual, Equal Strain on All Parts is loaded with such bob-and-weave. And it wouldn’t be a real Jimmy Buffett album without songs about the party lifestyle. “Portugal or PEI,” “My Gummie Just Kicked in” (featuring Paul McCartney on bass), and “University of Bourbon Street” all check that box.

That latter song, syncopated and enlivened by the Preservation Hall Jazz Band from the bridge forward, is the main new (and welcome) musical wrinkle, a brief stint on a Second Line on an album that elsewhere has the usual Buffett blend of steel drums and steel guitars, contemplative piano and acoustic guitar and other touches to match the mood. Here, pretty much everything sounds good.

Equal Strain on All Parts ends with a cover of Bob Dylan’s “Mozambique,” which appeared on Dylan’s 1976 album, Desire. It’s probably a song better suited to Buffet than to Dylan, and steel drums seem to fit better than the gypsy fiddle flavoring Dylan’s version. Emmylou Harris, who sang along with Dylan in 1976, came back to do likewise with Buffett in 2023.

If this is Buffett’s finale, “Mozambique” ends this fine album on a high note.

Follow journalist Sam Richards at Twitter.com/samrichardsWC.