T Bone Burnett – The True False Identity

T Bone Burnett’s first album in fourteen very productive years earns its title with theatrical songs that question the notion of truth in a world sick with spin. Burnett divides his twelve tunes into two acts, “Art Of The State” and “Poems Of The Evening”, but also argues that reality can be equally subjective in matters both political and personal. “This version of the world won’t be here long,” he sings in “Palestine, Texas”, “it’s already gone, it’s already gone.”

The dense, reverberating music here is as rich as anything he’s ever produced for himself or others. Rhythm is king in these meticulously recorded songs, with Jim Keltner among three wall-of-sound drummers used on many of the tracks. All the other instruments add their own percussive pulses; the rootsy rattle and clang suggests the experimental side of Los Lobos or a junkyard blues by Tom Waits. Marc Ribot’s guitar playing is spiked with crunchy rhythms and snarling leads.

Burnett deploys his reedy voice like an actor; some tracks are more like recitations than vocals. T Bone’s no rapper, but there’s music in his words, and his Dylanesque wordplay complements jams that draw on reggae (“Zombieland”), screechy metal (“Palestine, Texas”), slick blues (“There Would Be Hell To Pay”), and slinky R&B (“Every Time I Feel the Shift”). Other tunes are more traditionally structured, including a shuffling country rocker, “I’m Going On A Long Journey Never to Return”, and “Earlier Baghdad”, which echoes the ghostly cool of Bob Dylan’s “Love Sick”.

“Nobody knows what’s going down, but it’s going down,” Burnett sings on the spooky “Fear Country”, which slyly quotes “I Put A Spell On You.” “What is this religion that has left us in this condition?” he asks his fellow Texan amidst the molten guitar of “Palestine, Texas”. Burnett is mad with words and drunk with drums, and on The True False Identity, he manages to shock and awe.