Possessed of a creative spirit as restless as his vaunted socio-spiritual conscience, Canadian singer-songwriter Bruce Cockburn took nearly four years to deliver You've Never Seen Anything, his first album of the new millennium. Judging from the rich, challenging musical/topical tapestry that's resulted, it was time well spent. Cockburn's career has been a long (this marks his 27th release) and varied one, wending its way from Christian-oriented folk to the angry agit-prop pop of "If I Had a Rocket Launcher" and beyond, much of it seasoned with musical influences that have ranged from jazz to world-beat. But seldom has Cockburn woven those disparate inspirations into a collection as rewarding as this one. With the eye for detail--and nose for trouble--of a grizzled foreign correspondent, Cockburn is as unafraid to deliver spoken-word dispatches from the front ("Postcards from Cambodia", the title track's haunting litany of back-page horrors) as he is to wrap the greed-head harangue "Trickle Down" in ironic, percolating jazz or let his voice soar with a rare, naked expressiveness on the beautiful "Everywhere Dance". Sam Phillips and Emmylou Harris add sparkling harmonies to "Tried and Tested" and the hypnotic, cautionary "All Our Dark Tomorrows", respectively, while Cockburn gracefully closes the compelling collection out with gentle reminders ("Don't Forget About Delight", "Messenger Wind") about the importance of human connections both great and small. --Jerry McCulley
