KEY POINTS:
Rating: * * * *
At 60 and with a white beard, this album title might have been expected from one of rock's most literate singer-songwriters, but Browne isn't going to go out with easy resignation - although a few lyrics reflect on when "there was change in the air, it was love everywhere" and a girlfriend of his youth (the gentle Giving That Heaven Away).
What concerns Browne mostly is the philosophical question: "knowing what we know, how should we live?"
He sings of deciding what kind of world we believe in (the title track), what is actually worth fighting for (the somewhat leaden The Drums of War), how love can be found (The Arms of Night) - but also of the base politics of our time (the accusatory Where Were You about Bush's lack of response to Katrina and the social aftermath, and a dew-eyed view of Castro's land and the American embargo in Going Down to Cuba).
Most of these, even the more urgent material, is delivered in Browne's signature, laconic style and often the rush of words get in the way of a memorable tune.
Which means when the Caribbean lilt of Going Down to Cuba or the lovely The Arms of Night come along they are a welcome relief.
Musically this is mostly familiar territory from Browne, but he saves the best to last: the almost hymnal optimism of the quietly soulful ballad Far From the Arms of Hunger. A grower.
Graham Reid
