Monday, May 29, 2006
CD Review: T Bone Burnett
T Bone Burnett
Twenty Twenty: The Essential T Bone Burnett
Columbia/DMZ/Legacy
By David Chiu
Though he is better known these days as an A-list record producer (Elvis Costello, Counting Crows, the Wallflowers, Sam Phillips, and the O Brother Where Art Thou? soundtrack), T Bone Burnett has been a critically-acclaimed singer and songwriter. The material on this first ever and comprehensive 40-song retrospective cover from his work with the Alpha Band in the ‘70s (the Cold War sentiment “Born in Captivity”) to the recent previously unreleased “Bon Temps Rouler”: in between are some gems including a duet with Elvis Costello on “The People’s Limousine,” a cover of bluesman JB Lenoir’s “Man Don’t Dog Your Woman,” an adaptation of the standard “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend;” and a handsome ballad “River of Love.” Certainly influenced by Dylan (an association that dates back when Burnett was in his Rolling Thunder Revue in the mid-‘70s), Burnett crafts music in the roots rock vein with pointed, almost noir-ish lyrics of prefabricated fantasy (“Hefner and Disney”), tragic heroines (“Fatally Beautiful”) , and dark and tortured characters (“Kill Zone,” the Appalachia-sounding “Shut It Tight”) For those who only know him as only the sonic architect, Twenty Twenty is a fitting (re)introduction to Burnett’s work as a criminally underrated artist.
# posted by NewBeats @ 10:22 AM 
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