2011-02-28
Over 30 albums into his career, Bruce Cockburn continues to deliver fresh and provocative perspectives on the world and the human heart, spiced with excellent guitar playing and a splash of exotic sounds from instruments such as bells or gongs. This time, Bruce goes mainly acoustic, choosing not to dress up the numbers very much and the result is a slower, more languid record. That's not all bad, and on songs like "Call Me Rose" (about Richard Nixon being reincarnated as a single young woman with kids in the projects), the life-reflective piece "Iris of the World" and "Five Fifty-One" (driving at the break of dawn) are great additions to the Cockburn legacy and the instrumentals ring. I wouldn't rank this as one of Bruce's best, but this guy sets such a high bar that his "average" outings outshine most of his peers. 02/11 MJVD F-ContemporarySPARKLEHORSE
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