The Burt Bacharach Discussion Forum

http://www.chartattack.com/DAMN/2005/11/2201.cfm

BURT BACHARACH At This Time (Columbia/Sony BMG)
What can a 77-year-old hitmaker do to eclipse what he's added to the 20th century musical canon over his 40-year career? Get a little political and mix some rap beats with some Bush beating lyrics — that's what. On At This Time, Bacharach creates and conducts 11 new songs that question the current state of the world with a little help from his friends, including Elvis Costello, Rufus Wainwright and Chris Botti. On the jazzy "Where Did It Go?" Bacharach contemplates the future of his children backed by a commanding alto saxophone. "In Our Time" is an effective instrumental arrangement led by Bacharach's classical piano. This disc properly showcases a respected songwriter weighing in on a world gone wrong. David McPherson

From The City Paper (online)

Web only column: Riffs
By Ron Wynn, rwynn@nashvillecitypaper.com
November 23, 2005

http://www.nashvillecitypaper.com/index ... s_id=46142

... [Neil Diamond] ...

Though it bears his name, the CD Burt Bacharach At This Time (Sony/BMG) spotlights everything except his singing. Bacharach not only produced and arranged all the tracks, he also conducted the orchestra, and it’s interesting to hear an old-school type working in electric instruments, drum and bass loop segments within pieces that also have lush and multi-textured string segments.

Contributors to the process include Dr. Dre, as well as the prominent jazz pianist Billy Childs and Latin percussion ace Paulinho Da Coast, and Bacharach even mans the keyboards on such cuts as “Who Are These Peopleâ€￾ and “Go Ask Shakespeare.â€￾ John Pagano, Josie James and Donna Taylor handle the vocals on those tracks with lyrics, and do a decent, though not particularly animated or memorable job delivering them.

While an often conceptually interesting mix of classic and cutting-edge instrumentation, Burt Bacharach At This Time gets more attention for its intriguing edge than its execution.