Consider me a new Bruce Cockburn fan. Now, I had been familiar with him
for a long time, but was unimpressed with his cover of Mark Heard's "Strong
Hand of Love." I was exposed to his CCM-accepted Dancing in the Dragon
Jaws and thought it was a great album. Dart to the Heart
was even better. But none of these albums made me a die-hard Bruce
Cockburn fan.
One
night on the radio, I heard "Last Night of the World." Oh bliss.
Songs like this only come by once or twice in a lifetime. It is a
coherent wandering of thought, inspired by Sam Phillips, and it took about
four years before the song was complete. Every line is etched in
thought and with smirky wittiness.
Other
songs on the album that are worth buying the album for include "Blueberry
Hill" with Margo Timmons (Cowboy Junkies), and the instrumentals: "Down to the Delta" and
"Deep Lake." While the Canadian's new release is close to a classic piece of
work, "Isn't that What Friends Are For" with Lucinda Williams is really
lame. And I adore Lucinda Williams, so it's not like I don't like her.
Cockburn just tends to have a brief moment of weakness and the unability
to express his feelings eloquently in "Isn't that What Friends Are For." "Use
Me While You Can" transports you to an Arabic setting, which is not all
that fascinating. He "talks" in this song, which is not unusual for
Cockburn to do, but this is another mediocre point on the album. One of the
other great highlights, however, is a song in which he does talk: "Look How Far."
It's beautiful; it's magnificent. It makes you wonder why more people don't like
Bruce Cockburn's music.
"Let the
Bad Air Out" is really cool, with Cajun based influence musically, but isn't
the coolest song if you're a Christian, because it's kind of a song about a
whore. Another offensive song may be "Mango" about female sexuality. The
music is nice, but the words can get really annoying. I should not mention what I think of
the opening cut, "When You Give it Away", because I hate to downplay Cockburn's brilliance. But
it sounds a lot like his song "Dancing in the Dragons Jaws" that he wrote about twenty years ago.
I would
have to say that Breakfast in New Orleans, Dinner in Timbuktu
is his best release yet. It is his twenty-fifth album, yet he is constantly
maturing as an artist and developing his creativity, which makes this album
fresh and interesing. If you haven't yet discovered his music, give it a try. If you are a Cockburn fan, you will not be disappointed.