Over the course of his career, folk rocker Dan Bern has appeared to be in possession of an inexhaustible supply of songs. Training his keen critical eye on everyone from Tiger Woods to Kurt Cobain and openly ruminating about ex-girlfriends, famous painters and stabbed tennis players, Bern’s songwriting was verbose but oddly economical, seemingly on tap. That being said, it’s odd on his new album Breathe to hear him contritely admit, “Sorry I’m a little tongue tied.� It’s a relief, however, to learn that this is not exactly true. Now into his late thirties, Bern is different; contemplative and even somber in spots, Breathe finds Bern confronting the lifespan of heroes, the lifespan of love, and the lifespan of his body. Rife with responsibility, vulnerability and confession, on Breathe Bern steps forward to take stock of his mistakes (“Trudy�), attempts to strike a deal with God for a peaceful night’s sleep (“Past Belief�) and in “Rain� he resorts to shoegazing and guiltlessly declares, “I don’t gotta do anything at all.� Particularly moving is “Suicide Room,� where Bern tries to break the curse of a hotel room where people keep taking their own lives, by just getting through the night. Once inside, Bern confesses, “…figure if I can’t beat this world, maybe I can beat this room.� It may be a small victory, but Breathe is all about winning these types of battles. Later, the title track revisits “Jerusalem� from his first album, and “Feel Like A Man� returns to the subject of his father’s death, a subject first broached on “Oh Sister� from Fifty Eggs. There are still celebrity sightings (Marlon Brando shows up in “Feel Like A Man�) and his humor is still intact—it’s the calculator he’s always used to do his existential long division—but Bern’s introspection breeds lines like, “I’m willing to go on faith, but I’m past belief.� In other words, there are no answers here—he’s looking for them just like you.
Alex Green
Release date: September 19, 2006
Buy Album from CD Universe
