This came out in 2003 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
You grow up and you calm down. Joe Strummer warned us about that back in the day. Thankfully, Bruce Cockburn wasn’t paying attention.
After more than three decades in action, this legendary Canadian folksinger remains as passionate and outspoken as ever — if not more so. You’ve Never Seen Everything, his 27th album, not only marks Cockburn’s return to the recording studio after four years, but also stands as his angriest and most politically relevant offering in more than a decade.
Unlike the more personal approach his work adopted during the ’90s, songs like the shuffling Tried And Tested, the languidly mesmeric All Our Dark Tomorrows and the urgently jazzy Trickle Down are composed from a broader worldview, with Cockburn firing his rocket launcher at greedy fatcats, immoral corporations, oppressive regimes and a certain “village-idiot” king who are all working for the clampdown.
In keeping with the global perspective, You’ve Never Seen Everything functions as something of a musical travelogue, as Bruce and a lineup of all-star guests — everyone from Jackson Browne and Emmylou Harris to Tom Waits’ rhythm section — weave lush worldbeat grooves, ethnic percussion, spooky ambient production and sinewy seductive melodies that snake along beneath his soothing guitar, dusty vocals and forceful lyrical imagery. “I see the leader of the people with a ring in his nose / And the leaders of business tell him which way to go,” he sneers on the spoken-wordy title cut. “And we’re supposed to be impressed with their success.”
Well, maybe not. But it’s impossible not be impressed and heartened by the triumphant return Cockburn makes on You’ve Never Seen Everything.
