Dart to the Heart

Bruce Cockburn | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 1, 1994)
• Original Release Date: March 1, 1994
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Sony
• ASIN: B00000295H
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  MiniDisc  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #81,905 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Bruce Cockburn is Canada's version of Richard Thompson, a brilliant folk-rock guitarist who also writes smart, acerbic lyrics about the twisted ways of modern society and modern romance. Never as vicious or as funny as Thompson, Cockburn is a more restrained, less obvious talent, but rewarding just the same. Dart to the Heart, free of political abstractions and filled with personal musings on love, is his best since 1985's World of Wonders. The first single, "Listen for the Laugh," is a boisterous hornªpowered rocker that insists good-naturedly that the surest sign of love is not sighing but laughter--and very specific sort of laughter, like "a chain saw in a velvet glove." That's a good description for Cockburn's guitar work, too, for he keeps it buried behind his deep, sleepy vocals, but if you listen closely you can hear just how his picking chews up chords and sends notes flying in all directions. --Geoffrey Himes

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A return to the quieter side., March 27, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Dart to the Heart (Audio CD)

Bruce Cockburn is one of the finest musicians ever to have graced popular music, as well as one of the most politically and socially aware. What I'd regretted since the early Eighties was that he decided to shift gears so completely from his acoustic, up-close-and-personal style into the one typified by "If I Had A Rocket Launcher," heavy on synths and political commentary. It's not a bad style, but was there no room for the type of thing he'd done before? Thankfully, the answer is yes with DART TO THE HEART. With a good blend of acoustic and electric, Cockburn explores the roads of love and commitment in relating to another person. "Bone In My Ear," "Train In The Rain" and "Scanning These Crowds" all have that intense personal view that Cockburn somehow makes universal; you don't know why a lover is being compared to a bone in the ear, but it FEELS right. He also does what should be a bonafide standard-in-the-making with "All The Ways I Want You," as gorgeous a love song as there is. This album is one Cockburn's best.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Compelling and won't let go, May 1, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Dart to the Heart (Audio CD)

This was the first album...oops, CD (dating myself!) I had ever heard from Bruce Cockburn. We were living in Sweden and listening to a fantastic (now alas morphed into eurotechnopop) American radio station in Stockholm. In the beginning, they had no play lists, other than what the DJs liked - it was eclectic and amazing, and this was in the mix. I learned more about music during that period (1993-94) than I had in years. Then my husband and I were lucky enough to spend several days at the rock festival in Roskilde, Denmark, where we saw BC play live. I'll never forget it.

Every song on this CD has engraved itself on my memory. They make me laugh, cry, smile; the music delights my soul and the poetry of his lyrics stimulates my mind and pushes me to work on my own writing. "Bone in My Ear" and "All the Ways I Want You" are two of the most compelling and beautiful love songs I know. And when I think of hanging at a crossroads and drying in the wind...well, I can't help but smile.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars His 25th Album, December 16, 2004

By 

Cletus J. "Bubba" Huckabee Jr. "Bubba" (Chesterfield County) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dart to the Heart (Audio CD)

(twenty fifth album)

One of the funniest things about this album is that a well-known right wing talk radio host used the intro to "Listen for the Laugh" as bumper music for his show. I used to chuckle long and hard every time I would hear that come on because if the two of them had ever sat down to compare notes on ideology they would find that they are about as far apart as one can get on the political spectrum. I assume the right wing radio host was having his production company pay for the use of the tune, so maybe Bruce didn't mind.

Me and the twins use this CD as our aerobics CD. They like to wiggle around and squirm up and down and exercise to it while I stand in their room and kind of look on and grin. I tap my toes a bit, but that is about as much exercise as I care to be involved with. Stout men such as myself tend to perspire rather profusely and for that reason I don't like to exert myself unless absolutely necessary. The twins are so wiry that they never sweat no how, so for them it don't matter.

The robot-generated text from Amazon states that, "Bruce Cockburn is Canada's version of Richard Thompson," but shouldn't it be the other way around? Cockburn can be more subtly vicious and a great deal more funny as Thompson, Cockburn is in fact a more restrained and less obvious talent, but a great deal more rewarding.

They ought to rope in those robots if you ask me. Mama got angry when she saw what the machine had written and if mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy. I best sign off here as she is starting to fume.