The 1981 Listening Post - Bruce Cockburn - Inner City Front

Bruce Cockburn - Inner City Front 

#159

1981 Housekeeping

Bruce Cockburn

Inner City Front

Genre: Songwriter Rock

2.5 out of 5

Why do I feel like I’ve entered into the realm of the Billy Joel? Is it the smooth jazzyness of the opening track? 

But, wait…now I’m in latter day Joel…crossed with a soundscape that Gary Numan could toss off in his sleep…

I just don’t get the accolades for Cockburn. I find him unctuous and boring. I mean, I guess if you were a Dream of the Blue Turtles Sting guy, this might be fore you. It’s not for me. I kind of enjoy the Dire Straits/Cars hybrid “Wanna Go Walking” but not enough to ever want to hear it again, let alone highlight it.

This album is a listless hodgepodge of every flabby AOR trope you can think of. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/inner-city-front-bonus-track-version/303504943

The 1980 Listening Post - Bruce Cockburn - Humans

Bruce Cockburn - Humans

#132

1980 Housekeeping

Bruce Cockburn

Humans

Genre: Like a lesser child of Warren Zevon and Mark Knopfler

3.75 pout of 5

Highlights:

How I Spent My Fall Vacation

You know who is the heir to Cockburn with his repetitive rhythms and his kind of singing but really just barely getting there? John Darnielle. At least on this record. It’s the same poetic observational perspective and the dull music. But Darnielle traffics in a lacerating pain that comes through his songs and Cockburn is less confessional than he is a commentator on society and it’s ills. In the long run I prefer what Darnelle does because he can drag me to tears (The Sunset Tree, an annual listen that just wrecks me) where Bruce makes me go, “hmmm….yeah, people are like that…”

But with Cockburn, since he’s singing about societal and human conditions from a 30,000 foot view instead of Darnielle’s onion skin shedding honesty, you either buy in to Bruce’s world view and decide to go with him on that journey or you don’t. And if you don’t all that’s left is okay music, good playing and a singer who really isn’t great. I love bad rock and roll voices more than anything (looking at you, Gordon Gano) but if there’s nothing to sing along to and you aren’t inspired by the songs, it plays poorly. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/humans-deluxe-edition/295779583

The 1986 Listening Post - Bruce Cockburn

Bruce Cockburn - World of Wonders

#596

1986 Housekeeping

Bruce Cockburn

World of Wonders

Genre: AORock

2.75 out of 5

I can’t tell if Cockburn wants to be Bob Dylan or Mark Knopfler or the Canadian Springsteen but, in any case he keeps plugging along with his FIFTEENTH album and one has to assume he owns the record label. I know that Bruce is well regarded by the 80s rock intelligentsia but I am not one of those so I don’t feel bad that he’s not my cuppa. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/world-of-wonders/295196787

The 1984 Listening Post - Bruce Cockburn - Stealing Fire

Bruce Cockburn - Stealing Fire

#125

May 1984

Bruce Cockburn

Stealing Fire

2 out of 5

Highlights:

If I Had a Rocket Launcher

Repeating the title of your song over and over in the chorus doesn’t a song make. Sorry, Brucie. There is nothing here that indicates to me that Cockburn should be making records to sell to anyone. Gawd this is boring. 

And dripping with “import”. The thing about being socially conscious is you either better be a battering ram of a punk or have a catchy song. “Pride”. “Biko”. These are examples of what Cockburn is wishing he could be. He fails. Unless there is a brilliant accompanying light show to go with it, “To Raise the Morning Star” I have no use for. I include one song as a highlight inasmuch as it’s the most accessible representation of what Cockburn is trying to do. It’s not great, but it’s the best Bruce has to offer. 

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/stealing-fire-deluxe-edition/295118335

The 1983 Listening Post - Bruce Cockburn - The Trouble with Normal

Bruce Cockburn - The Trouble with Normal

#273

1983

Bruce Cockburn

The Trouble with Normal

2.5 out of 5

I really appreciate the sentiment. Bruce is hitting on some very important social and political issues here. Trouble is, he comes across as so paternal because his production, playing, style, is all so…history teacher. He lacks the edge that even a Billy Joel has and that is saying something.

If you wanted to know what Warren Zevon sounds like occasionally impersonating Bob Dylan while fronting a Dire Straits band, who only listen to Genesis records, look no further.

This is as MOR as it gets, whatever messages are mired deep in these meandering tunes.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/the-trouble-with-normal/1308749140