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Review by JW April 29, 2003 (2 of 2 found this review helpful)
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Performance:  Sonics:  |
Why this guy is not more popular is a complete mystery to me. Maybe because his first body of work (during the 70's) was somewhat religiously inspired, narrowing his appeal perhaps. But from the mid eighties onwards he has changed his tune (pun intended) and produced gorgeous and often acoustic rock songs, some politically inspired with piercing lyrics. Cockburn has a sharp pen and in that way he reaches out to Dylan and Simon & Garfunkel. He also has an international style, often writing about various themes experienced on his travels.
In his own words; "It's the wheel going around," he says. "The stuff from the '70s was a product of inward-looking exercises, and then it got very much outward directed through the 80s, and started to swing back so that you get some of both in the '90s, and by the end of the '90s, it's back to internal again, but in what I hope is a deeper way. It's not my idea that love is at the center of everything, but I believe it is, and I understand a lot more about that than I did in the '70s."
This disc contains a good overview of his work from the later period (1980-2000). It is really a 'best of' because in my view it contains some of his best work, although for the fans I must stress that almost all of his post-eighties work is worth collecting because there are many gems to be found. He has made 26 albums in total, so if you are new to Bruce Cockburn, start here! You'll get ballads, electric guitar driven pieces, acoustic rock and almost symphonic tunes. His guitar playing I find of particular interest. His style is fairly distinctive, seemingly rooted in various folk and world music traditions.
The sound of this SACD, whilst generally fairly good, varies slightly between the first 5 songs and the rest. The first being of a lesser quality. Overall the treble on this discis it's weakest link - it's somewhat thin and 'digital'-sounding. Also on the CD the track "Rumors Of Glory" is missing. For this I deducted a star on the sonics. The SACD layer is a great improvement over the CD layer, which sounds much more brittle.
Jw
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