Tooth of Crime

T Bone Burnett | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 13, 2008)
• Original Release Date: 2008
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Nonesuch
• ASIN: B001662F9Q
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #92,361 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

T-Bone Burnett's "Tooth Of Crime", completed fresh off his acclaimed work as producer and arranger of the hugely successful Robert Plant/Allison Krauss collaboration Raising Sand, is an outgrowth of a long-running collaboration with playwright Sam Shepard that began with the 1996 musical staging of his noted play Tooth Of Crime (Second Dance) in New York. "Tooth Of Crime" is the follow-up to Burnett's highly praised 2006 album The True False Identity - itself a dynamic return to action after a fourteen-year hiatus as a recording artist. Best known for his work on the "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" soundtrack, T-Bone Burnett has produced albums for an elite roster of artists such as Bob Dylan, Elvis Costello, Los Lobos, Roy Orbison, Tony Bennett and K.D. Lang. His more recent projects include "Raising Sand", the re-imagining of the Beatles catalogue in "Across the Universe", and the music for the Johnny Cash biopic "Walk The Line".

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fresh T-Bone, May 14, 2008

By 

William Merrill "eclecticist" (San Antonio, TX United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Tooth of Crime (Audio CD)

The fact that these new T-Bone Burnett tunes were originally written for a play had me concerned at first. ("The Knee Plays," anyone?) But once I listened to the music, I got into it. The CD stands very well on its own without any connection to Sam Shepard's play, and every song's a keeper. You've got the Twin Peaks-ish "Dope Island," the occasional taste of blues such as "Sweet Lullaby," and a variety of other styles in between. As you might expect from producer extraordinaire Burnett, the musicians playing with T-Bone are impressive people like Jon Brion and Marc Ribot, plus his ex-wife Sam Phillips. (I'm a big fan of hers too.) The duets between Sam & T-Bone on "Dope Island" are marvelous, and she even sings lead vocals here and there. By the way, the title of this album reminded me of Burnett's "Truth Decay," except in reverse, right?

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars T Bone's albums are always keepers, June 2, 2008

By 

Gaylen Halbert (Weimar, California United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Tooth of Crime (Audio CD)

T Bone's albums are an investment that produce satisfaction on initial listening and reward again in the future. They just don't go stale--- e.g. TRUTH DECAY which can sit on my shelf for many months and then sound great again. T bone has established his status as a producer and his own music is adult rock at its very best. I am also a fan of Sam Phillips who makes an appreciated contribution to TOOTH OF CRIME.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Avant Garde Masterpiece, December 25, 2009

By 

Gord Wilson "alivingdog.com" (Bellingham, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Tooth of Crime (Audio CD)

This is the album I think a million alternative bands are trying to make. This is the album Pete Townshend, Maria Muldaur, Patti Smith, and the rest of T-Bone's pals will be listening to, not to mention numerous studio execs. You in?
I read the fifteen page lyric booklet, and the lyrics didn't make any sense. Bill Hart is there thanked for directing the first production of the play. It's a play? This is a soundtrack? Sam Shephard is credited for inventing an "intense nulanguge", and some of it reminds me of his play, True West.

But slip the CD in, and it's a different story. T-Bone's talking blues style perfectly fits the sleek, stylish music, 180 degrees from radio. The album starts off with a noir/ modernist jazz feel on "Anything I Say Can and Will Be Used Against You." There's a dazzling interplay of English major words (and I was an English major), but musically, it's probably T-Bone's best album (and that's saying a lot for a T-Bone fan). Glimpses of startling imagery and snatches of arresting phrases slide through the naked, suggestive music, recalling songs like "Mad Ave" and some of Alpha Band, like "Born in Captivity": "Then when you're the object of complete derision/ I'll make you a star on television."

Sam Phillips provides wonderful vocals on "Dope Island" (and four other songs), reminiscent of her stunning debut, The Indescribable Wow. Roy Orbison is listed as a co-writer on the incredible "Kill Zone". Whatever is going on onstage during the play visually, it must be amazing to hear this audio soundscape performed live. For those new to T-Bone's endless invention, this isn't his most accessible album. Those would include Proof Through the Night, for some reason released only as a limited edition by Rhino on CD, an EP called Trap Door, Truth Decay, and a collection called Twenty-Twenty. But after you hear those (or whatever you can find of those) you'll want more. Take heart, for just when you thought you'd die if they played those same twenty "alternative" songs on the radio again, here's something completely different, and it seems the Muse can sing again.

If this album seems somewhat bleak, it's merely because it is, and whatever else this retro/ future SF/ noir album is, it's an excursion through the dark side of the human condition. Lines like this from "Kill Zone": "How much grief and sin/ til a heart caves in?" simply make you long for the other side of the blues, which T-Bone explores elsewhere, the good news called gospel.