The songs on True False Identity are beyond the realm of popular music, and have wandered into the area of sound compositions or aural paintings. Each song on the disc has its own unique layers of emotional texture that he evokes with the variety of sounds that are possible to generate with instruments.
I know that sounds pretentious as hell, but it's the simple truth. If there is any commonality to be found between the music that T Bone has created for this disc and the stuff he'd been working on for the past 14 years, it's the fact that they share an emotional honesty that is scarce in most of today's plastic packaged product that passes for music.
In traditional roots music the simplicity of the musical accompaniment accentuates the emotional truths in the performer's voice and lyrics, in this music the voice and music work together to provide emotional resonance. Opera arias work in a similar manner, while the lyrics are telling the story, the voice that's singing becomes another instrument.
In Burnett's work it's almost like the opposite effect is accomplished. Instead of the vocals, and thus the lyrics, blending in to be a part of an emotional soundscape, the music becomes another voice articulating the themes of the song.
I have been working on this sound for a long time. We had done a great deal of experimentation in the studio and getting the sound was not something that could be gotten to quickly… I wanted to put listeners in the middle of this new sound, to experience it almost in 3D. I told the band to imagine we were playing in an auditorium, and to imagine that auditorium as a giant maraca and that we wanted to shake the audience as if they were beads inside the maraca. (T Bone Burnett)
Lyrically T Bone is as funny, ironic, and truthful as ever. The True False Identity is divided into two parts. Part one is titled "Art Of The State" and it contains songs that are primarily concerned with observations on society. "Poems Of The Evening", part two of the disc, puts a more personal perspective on display, while still keeping an eye on the world.
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