By The Time I Get Tomorrow - Paulo Buckly /Threshold Records
You can’t escape your influences and Phil Burdett certainly has a list longer than most. A glance at his MySpace site reveals names ranging from James Joyce to Jimmy Webb and Christopher Hitchens to Tim Hardin. The most obvious, however, has to be that “World Weary Wise Old Wanderer” himself, Van Morrison. With Van merely treading water creatively these days (and all his great songs at least 25 years behind him) it’s good to report that at least one of his acolytes can still produce the goods.
“By the Time I get Tomorrow” is Burdett’s fifth CD and the final part of an ‘unrequited trilogy’ which began with 2001’s “See You Later, Forever” and continued in 2006 with “Dandelion Wishes and Atheist Prayers”. Like the album itself, the front cover is Phil’s most impressive yet. Try imagining a portrait of James Joyce sitting reflectively in a dimly-lit Armish dining room as painted by Vermeer. Anachronistic maybe, but that’s what it looks like! No problems with artwork expenses though as, in true DIY style, it’s simply a photo taken using a mobile phone. Indeed, the whole album was recorded on the kind of budget unlikely even to cover Bono’s weekly sunglasses bill.
Reading through the excellent lyrics it quickly becomes apparent that there’s nothing from the Coldplay book of clichés here. The opening lines of “Valentino Mainline” reveal Burdett’s innate talent for song-writing and for conjuring up words of subtle style and substance “Misting the lens between the takes. Sifting through heartbeats, searching for fakes. I’m in the lonely part of town. Camden Town . Down by the lock there’s a sweet old night-time bench with cold headlights strobing all along the fence...” An insipid little shitehawk like Chris De Burgh would doubtless sell his own Grandmother to be able to write anything as heartfelt as this or, indeed, the equally fine “A.K.A. Love” .
“ Land of Two ” is (by Phil’s own admission) the most important song on the album. On first hearing it sounds quite inconsequential with its nursery rhyme-ish tune bringing to mind “Me and you and a dog named Boo”. Never go with first impressions though, as repeated plays reveal dark lyrics of despair “Spiral staircase where a vulture waits picking at the bones again…”. It’s a tragic lament for love unrequited, paradoxically wrapped up in a sticky-toffee sweet tune. Indeed, the entire album is suffused with an air of sadness, sorrow and love lost which is accentuated by Steve Stott’s beautifully understated mandolin playing and some highly effective female backing vocals.
Burdett’s certainly no slouch as a guitar player either displaying his fine acoustic picking on “Walking out to Sea Again” the album’s only solo track. “Snowman” starts off sounding not unlike “All along the Watchtower” on mogadon but soon transforms into something far more interesting. It’s further evidence of Phil’s talent for penning a great song, although there’s even better in store with the remarkable “ Bell Wharf Blues”. Anguish and despair never sounded so fine…“Look at me, terrified, as I stare into dark brown eyes and cry into the collar of your coat. Kiss your throat for a dare. Twisting the problems that never repair. We both know, darling, the truth”.
In these recessional days I guess it’s too much to hope for a respected record label or publisher to recognise the class on display here by signing Burdett (along with his cache of over 700 unreleased songs). In a deal that didn’t even include her back catalogue, “Live Nation” recently shelled out $120 million for the toxic Madonna, so I guess it’s pretty obvious what kind of morons are running our music companies these days (Guy Hands anyone?). None of this should detract from the fact that Phil Burdett is an exceptionally gifted songwriter whose music stays with you long after the CD has been returned to its case. Would that Van the Man could still produce songs of this quality.
Paulo Buckley (“Concrete Canvas”)
