Dart to the Heart

by

Bruce Cockburn

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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.

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.