CD reviews: 'True False Identity' lets listeners answer

Mark Brown, Rocky Mountain News

Friday, May 19, 2006

T Bone Burnett

• The True False Identity

Grade: A

• 20/20: The Essential T Bone Burnett

Grade: B+

On the cover of The True False Identity T Bone Burnett looks like an angry warrior returning home. Shot in washed-out black-and- white and wearing a suit that makes him look like a figure from early American history, he defiantly holds his weapon - a guitar - at the ready.

And it's one of those cases where the outside reflects what's inside. Burnett is a Christian who feels he has seen the very basis of his faith hijacked for political gain. Like U2 did with Helter Skelter, he has come to take it back.

"This version of the world will not be here long / it is already gone, it is already gone," he sings in Palestine Texas, an edgy, adrenaline-driven rocker.

Fans expecting a quieter and gentler Burnett after he worked on movie soundtracks such as Walk the Line and Cold Mountain are in for a surprise.

The True False Identity is unlike anything Burnett has ever done before. His melodic songwriting and tight, detailed wordplay is intact, but he has become fascinated with soundscapes and jagged rhythms. Think of a Tom Waits sort of sound sensibility coupled with a greater sense of melody and a plaintive, emotional voice and you've got The True False Identity. With a superb cast of supporting players - including some shredding guitar work by Marc Ribot - Burnett has put together not so much a concept album as just a series of observations about life. Some are topical and pointed - Fear Country uses the Patriot Act as a jumping-off point for privacy and paranoia. Some look at the bigger picture, with death itself literally breathing down his neck in I'm Going on a Long Journey Never to Return.

Like U2 (with whom he has collaborated in the past), Burnett's form of Christianity isn't the shove-it-down- your-throat variety. Rather, he poses bigger questions and lets the listener fill in the answers. In Blinded By the Darkness, he sings "If sin were dealt with by the laws of man / everybody would be in jail for life / in solitary confinement/ with no one to go his bail."

Despite all the big themes it's a fun album; Burnett mixes everything in his bag, from rockabilly to pop to Appalachian folk influences throughout the album.

That's not all he's got. 2 0/20: The Essential T Bone Burnett finally brings his out-of-print and/or never-on-CD work in a package that's a great introduction for casual fans but could frustrate the hardcore through its omissions.

Few will find the remixes he did of classic material to be substantially different or worse than the vinyl versions. But fans hoping for songs from Sam Shepard's Tooth of Crime will find only one track here, Kill Zone. The exclusion of his early song Ridiculous Man, among his sharpest, most detail-oriented songs, is inexplicable. What is here, however, sounds stunning remixed and remastered, including the irresistible Trap Door. Burnett promises more complete releases at a later date.