Bruce Cockburn's music continues to evolve and move in different directions. However, his poetic lyrics, sometimes spoken, always offer up vivid and alluring images. The recording also has the usual couple of songs that really highlight Cockburn's guitar playing ability. Overall, another great CD from a great artist.

For Cockburn, this is an upbeat album. The music is quite melodic and enchanting. The phrasing is as exquisite as the lyrics on many of the songs, and there are a couple of sofisticated instrumentals. Cockburn frequently employs a spoken word/sung lyric device on this album. It works. The lyrics come across as poetry, and span the range from humorous to dead serious. Cockburn also raises "Blueberry Hill" out of the cheese bin. The guitar intro belies that you will be hearing that song. There is still some of the political commentary Cockburn is famous for, especially in the acidic final cut, "Use Me While You Can." But the album also contains some wry lighter-toned songs such as "Mango" and "Last Night of the World," which are no less improtant. Musically, this disc is all about texture. I'm not sure how complicated the structures are, but the textural mix is just right. This might be the best disc of 1999.