by Maggie A. Clark
Owing to The Guess Who’s transformation from rock band into local institution, it’s easy to forget that Burton Cummings is not only a real person, but a real person who is still alive and making music.
Case in point: his latest album, A Few Good Moments, dropped on September 27. Upon discovering the forthcoming release of an honest-to-God Burton Cummings studio album in the year 2024, my initial reaction was something along the lines of “Oh, yeah, that’s right! I didn’t know he could do that!”
This new slate of tunes arrives fresh on the coattails of the settlement of a court case in which Cummings and Randy Bachman wrested control over their old band’s trademark from former colleagues Jim Kale and Garry Peterson. Cummings and Bachman sought up to $20 million in damages for false advertising and unfair competition, claiming that the Peterson-led iteration of The Guess Who traded on “the false impression that [Cummings and Bachman were] performing as part of the cover band.”
After all, there’s nothing more rock ’n roll than taking your old friends to court over a complaint that amounts to hey! No fair! You guys are playing without me! But that’s all over now and the good (?) guys won, so all that’s left is to take in the victory lap.
Growing up with a father who listens exclusively to “classic rock,” I know “American Woman” and “No Sugar Tonight / New Mother Nature” like the back of my hand, but I must admit a lack of familiarity with Cummings’ solo material. The lone exception is “Stand Tall,” which I only discovered by way of Yes We Mystic’s incredible live cover years ago. This fresh opportunity to delve into Burt’s oeuvre piqued my interest.
In A Few Good Moments, the 76-year-old Cummings contends with the passage of time, the loss of friends and lovers, and the process of coming to terms with change. It starts promisingly enough: the title track, which also serves as the album opener, could be reasonably described as “rollicking.” A few songs in, I was nodding along, thinking, OK! This guy’s still got some approximation of “it.” Maybe this won’t be so bad!
Cracks in the façade began to appear soon thereafter. With little variation in tempo or sound, the album really strains under its 17-song, 59-minute weight. The production does it no favours either. The bass and drums are buried in the mix, while the piano and guitar riffs aren’t dynamic enough to hold my attention. The whole thing comes out sounding rather flat.
Cummings’ vocals are another matter. They seem to have been touched up slightly with pitch corrector software, à la late-period David Bowie. But whereas Bowie remained inventive throughout his career—his final album, Blackstar, being reportedly influenced by Kendrick Lamar, Death Grips, and Boards of Canada—here Cummings sounds more or less like a county fair cover band version of himself.
In the absence of sonic experimentation, the most contemporary feature of A Few Good Moments is in “My Rhythm and My Rhyme” when Cummings bafflingly name-drops basketball stars Kyrie Irving and Steph Curry, whom he claims to have seen in person. (Big whoop, man. I’ve seen, uh, Tim Stapleton and Pär Lindholm.)
If I were to pick a song that captures the album in microcosm, it would have to be “Sanity.” Early on, Cummings laments, “I remember when old people were cool / Never hit upon, mocked, maimed, or ridiculed.” It’s pathetic, honestly, to be a world-famous millionaire musician whinging about how the young’uns don’t respect you nowadays – but a few moments after I got done rolling my eyes about it, he hits me with this:
“Not too long in the distant past / I had some values I thought might last / But ashes like dust, all that’s left of the coals / The flames were the cries of a billion souls” (!!). I know I’ve been dumping on the guy this whole time, but I must admit. That lyric slaps! Go off, king.Look, I hate to do this to ol’ Burt. It feels cheap, but it’s time to wrap up—and it isn’t my fault that he left the layup wide open. With his new record, Cummings offers a few good moments, perhaps, but no great ones and even the good are few and far between.