The True False Identity [Dual Disc]

T Bone Burnett | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 16, 2006)
• Original Release Date: 2006
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Dual Disc
• Label: Sony
• ASIN: B000F8DBDA
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #179,029 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Zombieland

2. Palestine Texas

3. Seven Times Hotter Than Fire

4. There Would Be Hell To Pay

5. Every Time I Feel the Shift

6. I'm Going On A Long Journey Never To Return

7. Hollywood Mecca Of The Movies

8. Fear Country

9. Baby Don't You Say You Love Me

10. Earlier Baghdad (The Bounce)

11. Blinded By The Darkness

12. Shaken Rattled And Rolled

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

T Bone Burnett likes to keep his listeners off balance, as his first album of new material in 14 years attests. As a producer, Burnett has been responsible for the commercial breakthrough of emerging bands (Counting Crows, the Wallflowers) and the renewal of venerable artists (Ralph Stanley, Tony Bennett), but mainly he's been renowned for the rootsy Americana he brought to the soundtracks for O Brother, Where Art Thou? and Walk the Line. Here, Burnett extends his musical range across a wide expanse--from tracks that mix the percussive throb of reggae dub with the angular clang of a Tom Waits album ("Zombieland") and spiritual rants on the nature of sin over a heavy metal-blues guitar ("Blinded by the Darkness") to the comparative lilt of a Caribbean rhythm ("Hollywood Mecca of the Movies") and a couple of numbers that suggest the mysterious atmospherics of film noir ("There Would Be Hell to Pay," the politically conscious "Fear Country"). Even when a country tune, "I'm Going on a Long Journey Never to Return," finds him in more comfortable musical territory, the fatal dread of the lyrics belies the warmth of the music. The band--featuring guitarist Marc Ribot and drummer Jim Keltner, long Burnett's instrumental accomplices--sounds capable of taking this music wherever he envisions. It's as if Burnett wields music as a weapon against complacency: his own, the listeners', the culture's. Though this is rarely easy-listening music, the results are never less than challenging. --Don McLeese

More from T Bone Burnett

Twenty Twenty: The Essential T Bone Burnett	The True False Identity (regular edition)	O Brother, Where Art Thou? (produced by T Bone)
Walk the Line (produced by T Bone)	King of America, Elvis Costello (produced by T Bone)	T Bone Burnett

Product Description

CD AUDIO SIDE: * Entire album

DVD SIDE: * Featuring intimate live music and spoken word performances by T Bone, marking the first time T Bone has performed his own material on camera in more than 15 years.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars MAYBE HIS TRUE IDENTITY???, May 19, 2006

By 

Thomas D. Ryan "American Hit Network" (New York) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The True False Identity (Audio CD)

Do you know how long it has been since T-Bone Burnett has released an album of his own? I do. It's almost fifteen years, and I've spent a good deal of that time checking record bins and lists of new releases waiting for something new to appear from him. Now that it's here, I cannot say I'm surprised to discover that T-Bone Burnett's new album is unlike anything else he has previously released. Maybe the change is because he was influenced by a few of the artists he produced (Cassandra Wilson, Elvis Costello, etc.), or maybe he was inspired by some of his soundtrack work ("O Brother Where Art Thou" and "I Walk the Line" were both created under his guidance). Either way, the change is both profound and startling.
In the past, Burnett's work displayed a keen awareness of Americana, with an underpinning of pop structures that made his music both unique and contemporary. On "The True False Identity," Burnett seems to be unconcerned with pop, instead relying on his own instincts to provide the sonic palette. The result is an album unlike any other that I have heard. Each song on this collection plays like an aural depiction of a subconscious thought, structured to follow the whimsical paranoia of Burnett's inner voice. "Fear Country," "I'm Going on a Long Journey," "Earlier Baghdad," and almost every other track here has a sense of underlying menace that is offset by a nearly playful lyricism. "Palestine, Texas" is flat-out absurd, with a `name game' rhyme-ology that can make you laugh out loud, albeit uncomfortably ("Frank who is swank robbed a bank with a tank for a prank...").
Structurally, almost all songs here share an even-paced, loping rhythm and dark, film-noir-esque arrangements that are perfectly suited to Burnett's wry voice. Chord changes are minimal, as if any change in the tonal presentation would interrupt the authenticity of the mood. "Seven Times Hotter Than Fire" sits on one chord until the end of each verse, where the band continually modulates to build on the tension inherent in the words. Lyrically, "The True False Identity" is both confounding and entertaining, suggesting Bob Dylan at his most mystifying. Burnett also shares Dylan's penchant for oblique moralizing and judgmental observation. For example, check out this line from "Blinded By the Darkness," which Burnett talk-sings over a lava bed of clanking percussion and buzzed-out guitar noise; "Do we want to inject the concept of sin into the constitution? Is this really necessary?....Shouldn't it be left to the laws of God and to the laws of nature? Can we trust this to the legislature?"
Conceptually, "The True False Identity" is no easy ride, but it rewards multiple listens. I personally plan to spend a lot of time listening to this CD, but I hope I don't have wait another fifteen years to discover what comes next. A Tom Ryan

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Legend Returns!!!!, May 20, 2006

By 

R. McNamee "The Conductor" (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The True False Identity (Audio CD)

I love this album! After more than a dozen years of producing other people's albums and creating incredible soundtracks, T Bone Burnett has returned with a great CD of his own music. The songs on True/False Identity reflect the accumulated wisdom an American legend. As you would expect from T Bone, the lyrics are compelling, with trenchant social commentary wrapped in biting wit.

The band that backs T Bone is terrific. Built on a foundation of Jim Keltner's drumming, the band delivers pulsating rhythms and compelling melodies.

True/False identity is a really important CD. Check it out.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars T Bone ushers in a storm, July 18, 2006

By 

DirkL (Sydney, NSW Australia) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The True False Identity (Audio CD)

"Disappointed" wrote a review giving 1 star after listening only twice? Fair go, I wasn't sure of it after 2 listens either. Quite a few listens later, my opinion is that it's very good indeed. Highly sophisticated musicianship, amazingly detailed and layered production, every song full of interesting sounds, melodies, rythyms and thoughts. Some are rasping, blues driven steam-rollers while other songs provide the space to breathe again. The closing song "Shaken Rattled And Rolled" sounds like an awakening disguised as a lament. This is exhilarating stuff and I don't expect there will be many better albums in 2006. As good as Bob Dylan's "Time out of Mind" (but TOOM is kind of easier to listen to).