It was a very common story in 2021 and 2022 -- a musician was planning to hit the road in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic put paid to their touring plans, and stuck at home, they decided their home studio might be good for more than just cutting demos.
Grant-Lee Phillips was gearing up to tour in support of 2020's
Lightning, Show Us Your Stuff when the world suddenly shut its doors, and as he observed a rich variety of chaos while homebound, he started writing songs about it all. 2022's
All That You Can Dream doesn't sound like a homemade album -- many of
Phillips' usual collaborators (including
Jamie Edwards on keyboards,
Eric Heywood on pedal steel,
Jennifer Condos on bass, and
Jay Bellerose on drums) were happy to fly in their parts, and the traditionally personal feel and the smokey caress of
Phillips' voice are very much present in these intimate performances. However, a more careful listen to the songs shows how much
All That You Can Dream is a product of its time and place. As
Phillips watched many daily lives get shifted into neutral, armed thugs storm the U.S. Capitol building, immigrants get treated like animals, and many of the cornerstones of American society and culture threatening to vanish in an instant, he was writing songs.
All That You Can Dream is not so much angry as gently appalled, the voice of a thoughtful man saddened and puzzled by the upending of all that seems reasonable in his world.
Phillips isn't
Billy Bragg, and he delivers his messages with the graceful impressionistic croon that has been the hallmark of his work since
Grant Lee Buffalo broke through in the 1990s.
Phillips' commentary on the state of the world is quite artful, but a look at the lyrics and a careful listen to the vocals allows the activist side of the songs to step forward, and when they take shape it's effective in the way it whispers rather than shouts in our ear. As a vocalist and songwriter,
Grant-Lee Phillips has lost none of the ability and magic that's made him worth hearing for the past 30 years, and whether you want to hear its messages as forefront or subtext,
All That You Can Dream reminds us of the reasons he's still worth hearing in the 21st century. ~ Mark Deming
![In My Own Time [50th Anniversary Edition]](http://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/0826853020329_p0_v2_s90x140.jpg "In My Own Time [50th Anniversary Edition]")
