Timing Is Everything Review

Timing Is Everything
Chris de Burgh
2002
Universal Records

Timing Is Everything is Chris de Burgh's long awaited new studio album. Ever since he revealed that he was back writing songs for a new album the excitement and speculation has grown, and one of the great things about working for this website is getting to hear things in advance. As a result, we can now reveal all there is to know about this new album, including this review, which follows weeks of listening.

Lets start with some facts that you are probably desperate to know. It is engineered and mixed by Chris Porter, all the lyrics are of Chris' own hand with the exception of one he co-wrote with Mark Spiro.
The album is just short of 42 minutes in length, and contains 11 tracks, 10 of which are brand new and one is a previously un-recorded one. The cover picture is a departure from previous albums, featuring a beach paradise and not a sign of Chris' face anywhere! (Long time fans will know what I mean - newer fans should look at the album covers within these pages!)

If the record company are reading this - I love the cover - it's fresh and definitely more original than they have been in quite a long time. It has absolutely NOTHING that I can see to do with the songs on this album but that's fine - it has to look good on the shelves of music stores all over the world, and this one will. The theme of this album, for those still wondering is relationships with others, and I do not mean basic friendship type relationships either. This album has a number of cautionary tales for us, and some exciting thoughts too.

I'll bet you are now eager to hear what the album sounds like - well, the audio experience can be gained elsewhere on this site, but for now why not read my words and imagine what the tracks are like - then surprise yourself when you listen.

The first play of any new album is the most important - does it grab your attention enough to keep listening? Will you play it a second time? I'm on my 100th so what does that say? Sure I have to listen to it a lot to do this review you say, but reviews can be done with a single play and a smattering of words. I really have listened to this on continuous play on the car's CD player since the day it arrived. The first time you listen to it, maybe three songs will hit you that say "Play Me Again". When you do you will hear a few more you quite like, and before you know it the album has become a favourite and you are word perfect. The lyrics are up to Chris' high standards, and there are some great rock styled numbers too that will be concert pleasing.

I'm dragging this out aren't I! Enough then - on to the real reason you are reading - the review!

The opener, always important in any new release, is called "Guilty Secret", the first single released off the album and the one getting all the airplay as the promotional work takes off. It's a good start too - a cautionary tale to any men out there who aren't keeping their partners happy - just remember there are others out there who will, and some of them may just be your best friends! This song is quite well paced and conjures up images of people sneaking around at night, making rushed telephone calls and even, when no other recourse exists, using SMS text messages to communicate.

Guilty Secret is followed by another track that will make you think, as the song boasts about sexual prowess, and how your bed would discuss this if only it could - this is the imaginative "If Beds Could Talk", and he doesn't stop at beds - what would you do if your walls started to tell all as well - the person in this song would be happy because his surroundings, so he imagines, would boast about all the great things that have happened in the bedroom.....hmm.

Moving on to one of my favourites, and one getting a lot of airplay in Lebanon - and that is the superb "Lebanese Night" - I like everything about this one, it's rhythm, its lyrics, its imagery. Special Guest on this track is Elissa, quite a famous Lebanese singer in her own right. She can be heard singing some Lebanese lyrics. Lebanese Night transports us to late night in Lebanon, in a restaurant when in walks a woman from the garden outside who is so stunning she cannot fail to catch your eye. However you soon realise that she also carries the pain of the war torn region within her, and the story evolves from there.

The title track follows, its a track which says "Teen Movie" to me, I can really see him playing out a film, guitar in hand as the camera pans back from the corn field to the movie stars who have finally hit it off after a whole film spent trying!

This in turn is followed by the previously unrecorded "There's Room In This Heart Tonight", a song to make you think about the plight of those people who turn to us for help but whom we ignore every day.

The next two tracks are reasonable ones, and I challenge anyone to get the clapping correct during the chorus of "She Must Have Known". After that is "The Best That Love Can Be" all about a break up of a marriage and the man is reflecting on the relationship they had, and how it has gone sour, but he still has all the memories of how good they were once. "We were amazing" closes the song and then..........

They do not prepare you for the high energy rocking great song that is "Bal Masqué", a song about the mystery and romance of a masked ball. "One touch is all it takes - two hearts will meet again" sings Chris, and one listen to this is enough to know I'll be dancing around to this in concerts to come, and the lyrics and arrangement just stick in my head. Wow, what a great track this really is. I cannot do it justice.

Bal Masqué is followed by another two slightly slower paced but good songs all the same, the first of which should serve as a warning for anyone who is married and thinks they have to work all hours of the day and night. DON'T. This song is a little along the lines of "A Woman's Heart" at roughly the same pace too, telling us about a woman who has just taken that telephone call from her partner to say "Sorry, I won't be home tonight" and her thoughts turn to how her life could have been so different - all she wants is "Love and Time" and all he gives her is money - it's not enough - take note boys.

"Another Rainbow" is the penultimate track and the one I find the weakest of the 11, a gentle meandering song which I am sure will be a solo concert number and will be liked by lots of people but one I cannot get the feel of, however it is followed by a really good track to close the album, in "Save Me". Think about those times you've been at a dreadful party, its work related and you have no excuses when suddenly your mobile telephone beeps, and you have a text message from someone, someone in the same room as you, and someone who wants you to get her away from this. Your eyes meet and she is the girl of your dreams. That's the song to close the album, and one I have individually repeated a number of times.

And there you have Timing Is Everything, a great collection of new songs that you will listen to for quite some time - trust me - if you don't hear at least 3 great tracks on first play listen again, because you can't have been paying attention! If second time around it isn't five tracks, what are you doing? If by the end of the week this album isn't the only one you play for ages, are you sure you like Chris' material? This album is very, very good. Buy it as soon as you can.

Track By Track

1. Guilty Secret

"Living with a guilty secret" starts the song - yes, this is all about an affair, and the things you have to do when you are having an affair to avoid being found out - especially if the person you are seeing happens to be married to your best friend! We all know about this don't we - even if we've never done it - the sneaking around, the phone calls, the late night meetings, the fear of discovery - the excitement of discovery......
This song moves along at a quick pace, telling us that "he doesn't love her, the way I love her" and "anytime I want to, see her, I just have to dream - I LOVE HER, I REALLY LOVE HER".

2. If Beds Could Talk

Another quick paced song, with some wonderfully imaginative lyrics - I can somehow picture Chris sitting on his bed, perhaps reading a book, when suddenly he gets this idea - "What if beds could talk, wouldn't that be something....." and from there came this song. "If beds could talk, mine would be saying, come back and hold me in your arms again". He doesn't stop with beds either as he boasts of what a good time these objects would have witnessed between singer and partner. "If beds could talk, if walls could hear if windows see imagine" he sings - quite!

3. Lebanese Night

A middle eastern theme to this one, we are transported to a Lebanese restaurant, late at night, when in walks a woman so beautiful that passion stirs as your eyes meet hers and you know she is the one in your hearts desires. This has a great rhythm, is fast paced, and it is truly a great number. The woman comes over to see you and suddenly you realise that behind the eyes there is a young girl who has had to endure the horrors of fighting throughout her life. "Did you go to your bed with a sweet lullaby and the sound of the guns in the night" goes the chorus. The song puts you right there, facing that woman, thinking how it must have been for her "Did you dance in the fields, did you run for your life from the hell that came down from the sky, on a Lebanese Night". You cannot help but feel the terror that kind of life must bring.

4. Timing Is Everything

Strum that guitar and write a song that conjures up images of the teen movie. That's how I picture this song. It's about relationships, and how, if you get the timing wrong, they can fall apart, but get it right and anything can happen , for example on hearing that an ex girlfriend is getting married, "so get down to the church and let her see you once again, before you know it she's kissing you, and throws the ring away, and then she whispers to you, Timing is Everything, you finally got it right". The words Timing is Everything are repeated at the end over and over, and its this I think that gives me the teen movie feel - if you are a film music hunter who does that type of film (think Road Trip for example) and you are looking for some music, pick this as a ply out tune - its even a good track too. If this was performed by a popular teen band, it would be riding high in the charts.

5. There's Room In This Heart Tonight

A simple song, written some time ago by Chris, played out on piano, to highlight the plight of those people, those children who need our help, and who we've seen many times reaching out for our help, but who we deliberately ignore, and who we close our hearts to. "How many times can I look in your eyes and say I have nothing to give, and how many more times must I wake in the night with dreams of the way that you live". The song is aimed at making you think that you could , no SHOULD actually help, and that you really do have Room In This Heart.......

6. She Must Have Known

A song all about stirring feelings, this song suggests a woman not content any longer with her current man, but who sees another, and suddenly those feelings are returning, and she's not too sure they are for her man, but she denies that she has feelings for this other for a while, and Chris sings "sooner or later, it is meant to be", and the clever line "now she's heading for the sunshine, she's gonna be like Shirley Valentine". The point is that the person in this song knows deep down that the feelings aren't a part of the current relationship, and she has to get out and follow her heart.

7. The Best That Love Can Be

A quiet reflective song of the story telling type Chris does really well, about a marriage break up from the mans perspective. He's reflecting on the good times in the marriage as he prepares to say good bye once and for all. "There was a time the fire was burning bright, and everything was shiny in the night, but when the heart is cold, together we're alone, thinking of reasons to stay" - "when desire has gone it's hard to carry on going through the motions when there's nothing there"
Close your eyes and let yourself get carried away by this lovely if poignant little song - I can see Head and The Heart all over again - and at the end all he has is the memories of how it was amazing, the memories of "The Best That Love Can Be"

8. Bal Masqué

If you had started to drift dreamily to sleep with the previous song, WAKE UP! This is a rocking number, turn up the stereo and enjoy! For those who do not know, this is about the society event of the year, the masked ball. The idea is to wear a mask to hide who you are - no one is to know - it's a little like donning a totally new personality and freeing yourself of the inhibitions of your own life. This has guitars, drums, a fast beat, it's fantastic!
"there is one who will meet again in this endless duet of the dance, then the carriages come and the ladies descend with their dreams, with the gloves and the mask, nothing is here what it seems". You can really feel yourself there in the moment, perhaps a New Orleans summer, maybe were in Venice, whatever, when the woman of your dreams comes in from the garden you just know its her, regardless of the mask "One touch is all it takes, two hearts will celebrate" - its saying that you will always know your true love.

9. Love And Time

This begins with a slow piano and you think this is a gentle love song - but wait - here comes a faster guitar, and a steady rhythm. "She is alone again, wondering how her world could have been, he's on the phone again, telling her he'll be working late". What we have here is a cautionary tale about what can happen when you let money get in the way of a relationship, when you lose sight of the important details of your life, and it tells us that money is not the way to happiness. Have you been that woman in the restaurant left to finish the meal yourself as your partner is called away - sometimes all too easily. Haven't you wondered what else you could do, how different it can be with someone else? This song finishes with the man waking up to find his wife has done just that, has gone to someone who will appreciate her for her, not try and gain her happiness with money. Be warned!

10. Another Rainbow

A gentle song, played out on the guitar, I can picture Chris singing away in a quiet cafe perhaps, to this one other person, a good friend in there about dreams and plans. They are sharing a reflective moment, about following that rainbow, reaching for the dreams that may never actually come off - "It is better to have tried in vain than never tried at all" he tells us. He recounts them going their separate ways following their own dreams and ideals, and how it didn't really work out, but at least they tried. And how they can always turn to each other to talk things over. I think we may all wish we had a good friend like this to turn to in times of need.

11. Save Me

"Once in a dream I was falling in love" starts this song, "but just as our lips were starting to kiss, I woke up on the floor" - well, that's the dream over - haven't we all been there? In a flash we find ourselves in one of those official gatherings that have to be done, but where you actually know very few of the people you are supposed to be talking to like you've known them forever. This song features chat up by SMS message! I like the tune a lot - this is to be a favourite track. So you are at the party when the mobile phone beeps and you have an incoming message "an incoming tone, came up on my phone, it was an SMS, and it said Save Me - take me away from here", and you look around but can see no one, no - wait, there she is by the door, gesturing to you, the girl of your dreams - oh yes, this is the stuff dreams are made of. A great way to close the album.

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