Customer Reviews

Dart to the Heart

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

(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.

It is apparent that the previous reviewer Geoffery Himes knows very little about Bruce Cockburn (or Richard Thompson for that matter). Every now and then Cockburn will stray from the political, social and/or enviornmental issues, and address matters of the heart and mind on a very human level. He has done this on 'Dart to the Heart' and he will probably do so again,..it is a cyclical aspect of his carreer that most of his fans find to be refreshing. The imagery on 'Dart to the Heart' is an excellent example of Cockburn's personal side which i think most fans knew was lurching somewhere behind the rocket launchers, landmines and euro-panorama's.

Bruce Cockburn's "Dart to the Heart" from 1994 is a difficult one for this longtime fan to rate. It contains some of Cockburn's most tender and beautiful love songs in the ballads "All the Ways I Want You" and "Someone I Used to Love." Many of the songs on the album are in fact among the artist's most personal and direct meditations on love to date. The song "Closer to the Light," written in memory of fellow singer/songwriter Mark Heard upon his death, is aching and hopeful at the same time and is a wonderful expression of sorrow and wonder in the face of mortality. The two instrumental tunes on the album, "Train in the Rain" and "Sunrise on the Mississippi," are also classic Cockburn and remind us just what a gifted and underrated guitarist he is. Many of the songs on the album are strong first-rate Cockburn. But where "Dart to the Heart" falls short for me is with the more upbeat tunes. The opening song "Listen for the Laugh," for example, is a propulsive horn-driven number that might have worked, but somehow gifted producer T Bone Burnett fails to capture a compelling vocal performance from Cockburn to match the organic rock sound. Similarly raucous songs "Scanning These Crowds" and "Tie Me at the Crossroads" fall short in the same way, with Cockburn's vocals feeling forced and uncharacteristically non-melodic. We know that Cockburn can rock under the guidance of his producer, as demonstrated by songs like "A Dream Like Mine" or "Somebody Touched Me" from 1991's "Nothing But a Burning Light" which was also produce by Burnett. But for whatever reason, the faster songs on the album lessen it's otherwise intimate, earthy appeal. Bruce Cockburn is one of those rare artists who simply doesn't produce any bad stuff, so the album is easy to recommend. There are some really powerful and moving songs on the album that make it well worth a listen, but the somewhat flat, hollow performances on the faster songs hold the album back a bit overall.

If Canadian, Bruce Cockburn has ever released a weak collection, I've yet to hear it. He holds a position similar to Australia's, Paul Kelly: respected within his own country, revered as a musician's musician. Their work is varied, always with lyric interest, topical, tight and well considered. The common comparison is the Dylan, Thompson pairing, similar folk rock grooves, and three to four decades of production. But it is immediately apparent that the first mentioned pair fare less well as singers than writers. Bruce's vocals express a dry world weariness that is entirely appropriate for his ecological concerns. These are politically astute, but have the least reach, a common fault of sermonizers. His love songs are every bit as richly nuanced as anything from Dylan or Thompson. His heart is in the right place, and though neither pious or smug, a little humour might elevate the texts. I've retained,'Dragon Jaws', 'Talking Timbucktu, and this one('Dart') and though each has its own temprament, there's not a lot between them. The early,'Sunwheel Dance' had an easy bucolicism that immediately converted me to Cockburn country. David Wiffen, an old cohort, covered,'Up on the Hillside' with Cockburn on guitar on his great,'Coast to Coast in 1973, which is where I disovered Bruce. Pity Wiffen couldn't sustain his music career and cover more of Cockburn as his rich baritone enhances the colour of Cockburn in an engaging way.(I see Wiffen has a late career CD,'South of Somewhere', in 1999) When Cockburn visited these shores in the late 70s, about the time of his first Oz distribution,'In The Falling Dark', he filled a sizeable auditorium and pleasured us with a marathon set from his already, prolific catalogue. How his fingers danced over that cobalt blue acoustic guitar! A remarkable musician who seems able to draw from a limitless well.

dart to the heart is bruce cockburn's pop album. it uses more horns and electric guitars(strictly as sound effects, they're never very prominent in the mix)than any album before it. there is also more variety to this album, as it features rockers, country numbers, blues instrumentals and folk songs in separate moments, as opposed to in a potent, stripped down mix. this is both a blessing and a curse. while an interesting context can make up for a flawed song, it detracts from the lyrics, which are normally bruce's stongpoint. in other words, his focus is in the wrong place here. what's more, his attempts at country tend to fall flat on their faces(cockburn is best when he's making music with a little class) and there are no blues lyrics, which is wasted potential in my view. very mixed bag, only for harcore fans. having said that, scanning these crowds is a fantastic song, up there with bruce's best.

Turning his aim at matters of the heart, rather than the state of the State, Coburn scores a direct bullseye! Introspective without being brooding, this is a wonderful addition to his portfolio. While it doesn't take the listener on a world tour of exotic locales, it does explore the inner landscape of loss, longing, and love; as a result, it is easier for this bourgeoise Okie to relate to than death squads and land mines. I generally skip the first song, but I guarentee that all you aging Boomers will lift your mug of Starbucks and sing robustly along with the final track!!!

Dart to the Heart is one of my absolute favorite Bruce Cockburn Albums - and rates with my all-time favories Charity of Night, Circles in the Stream, and High Winds/White Sky.

Where the music wasn't what the record company wanted (said Bruce at a conference I attended, "I don't think they were looking for love songs, but that's what they got..."), Bruce delivers one poetic emotional notion after another. Highlights are "Pacing the Cage," ("I never knew what you all wanted - so I gave you everything... All that I could pillage... All the spells that I could sing..."), "Southland of the Heart," ("When you're hands are full of thorns but you can't quit groping for the rose"), "Closer To the Light," ("starred at the ceiling till my ears filled up with tears... Never got to know you - but suddenly you're out of here..." "Another step deeper into darkness - Closer to the Light")

Not a song on the list that isn't real, expressive, honest, and compelling.

Where I had a crush on Bruce after listening to "You Pay Your Money and You Take Your Chance," I am in unabashed musical LOVE after listening to 'Dart.' Thank you, Bruce. You truly showed me what music should sound like.

After way too long a time of not having listened to this recording, I did so just yesterday and I was again reminded of just how much I love this album...both melodically and lyrically. While I do think that on the verses of 'Listen For the Laugh' there are a few spots maybe pitched a little low for his voice, I REALLY like these two rockers ('...Laugh' and 'Scanning These Crowds') a lot. I like the energy, the arrangements and the brass sections among many other aspects of these two songs. And then there are those marvelous ballads (espec. tracks 2, 6, 8 and 11). This album also has my second favorite instrumental of his ('Train in the Rain') right after 'End of All Rivers'. The closer is a VERY catchy sing along tune with a bit of humor. All-in-all I place it in the upper echelon of all his releases, certainly not one of his lesser recordings as I've read from a few professional reviewers. But then, what do I know.