Musically and lyrically it presents the listener with challenges that one doesn't normally associate with popular music. Even songs like "Sweet Lullaby," with its gentle, country tinged, musical introduction, becomes unsettling with the addition of Burnett's vocal track. His voice has been treated so that it sounds like its being heard from a great distance and through an old radio speaker. The contrast between that and the warmth of the music adds an edge to an already emotionally ambivalent lyric, dashing the humanizing potential that the introduction implied.
While I am familiar with some of Sam Shepard's plays, Tooth Of Crime was not one that I knew anything about before listening to Burnett's CD. While knowledge of the play would probably enhance the experience of listening to the recording - it would be interesting to know about the characters who sung the songs and the circumstances in the play that inspired them - the CD stands as a work of art in its own right.
There are not many composers of any genre who are as capable of creating music that rewards its listeners to the extent that T Bone Burnett does. Not only is he an innovative musician he is also an intelligent lyricist. On Tooth Of Crime he demonstrates just how gifted he is in both areas.
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