It certainly has its moments, but a lot more besides...
Bruce Cockburn's style is fairly old-timey in a charming way, but there are quirks and tit bits in the songs that suggest a very modern approach to songwriting. He's been in the game for thirty-five years or so now and has received many accolades, especially in his home country of Canada, but all over the world too. So he knows a thing or two about what he's doing...
But is that apparent on Life Short Call Now? Well yes, occasionally it is, and sometimes it seems to falter. It's a long album, maybe seeming longer than it actually is, with moments of very beautiful songwriting and moments of expansive tedium. 'Beautiful Creatures' for example is a very strong number, with a great chorus that whacks some high notes in a Damon Albarn vocal styling and is very complimentary to a nicely lit area in your place of night-time listening. However it all seems to drag as you move into the latter half of the album, encountering the likes of 'Tell The Universe' and 'This Is Baghdad', the lyrics are often a little short of striking (although they do look better in French, as they're written out in the album sleeve) and leave a bit to be desired .It could do without the instrumentals, which come across as sounding in need of vocals, and if it knocked one or two other songs off it would be a more appealing long-player.
Regaining its pace and enthusiasm as 'Different When It Comes To You' comes on it's almost enough to totally turn around one's slightly dissatisfied opinion of the whole thing. He's sounding like Paul Noonan on this particular track and as the title-line is sung with the female backing vocals there's nothing you'd rather be listening to.
The album comes to an end quietly and quite successfully with first the spacey jazz of 'To Fill My Heart' and then the funny, super-market stereo-like 'Nude Descending A Staircase', which is a lovely little tongue-in-cheek stab at elevator music, a nice way to sail off...
So, a sporadic, to use a nice word, or patchy, to use a meaner word, new album from a little-known living legend of music from over the years. It doesn't make you attach yourself to it relentlessly, you come in and out of the record and miss parts because they are not attention-grabbing, and that's where it's let down, but in the moments when you are drawn into it, you're into it!