Tag: studio albums

(***) September 11, 2001. 31st Studio Album

By the time of his 30th studio release, Dylan doesn’t make any uneven albums anymore, which is both good and bad. Unlike earlier in his career, he is only releasing new material every 4-5 years at this point, and generally the best stuff is used. Love and Theft is a very pleasant-sounding album, with an upbeat tempo and simple production, instead of the sound experiments on previous releases. With his touring band behind him, Dylan sticks to his tried and true, boogie-woogie, rock and blues sound, along with a few Sinatra-inspired, lounge-lizard vocal presentations. This style creates a very enjoyable listen, but it is not cutting edge, or jagged, or rough, like some albums. You don’t get as many of the highs, but none of the crazy lows either (some of which are often pretty cool). Lyrically the album is strong, with some of the highlights “High Water (for Charlie Patton),” a nod to some of his  blues heroes, also covered with success by Sheryl Crow and the Dixie Chicks; and the rocking “Honest With Me,” but all the songs are consistently high-quality. Dylan won a Grammy for the album, it was critically well-received, and it also sold well, despite being released on the same day as the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

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(***) August 29, 2006. 32nd Studio Album.

Another pleasant, consistent album from Dylan’s late period, Modern Times debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard charts and continues his roots/blues/rockabilly sound. Self-produced and backed by his touring band, the album is clean and open, maybe a bit too much at times. The songwriting and vocalizations are strong, although musically it can get a bit monotonous. Two songs, “Spirit on the Water” and “Beyond the Horizon” are almost interchangeable, but they give Dylan the chance to showcase the sentimental, crooner side of his personality. It’s the songs that stray from this mold, the stark “Nettie Moore” and album closer “”Ain’t Talking,” which separate them from the rest. The killer cut though is “Workingman’s Blues #2,”  which stands among the great  Dylan songs from any era.

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(**½) July 14, 1986. 24th Studio Album.

Loaded is a somewhat directionless album featuring a variety of styles, including the Soul/Gospel sounds of late ‘70s, early ‘80s Dylan albums, a children’s choir (“They Killed Him” by Kris Kristofferson), island sounds (“Precious Memories,” a traditional gospel song) , and straight rock “Got My Mind Made Up.” Recorded with 30-plus musicians at a variety of studios, the album lacks a coherent feel and not many lyrically interesting ideas. But the quirky 11-minute Tex-Mex sounding “Brownsville Girl,” co-written with playwright Sam Shephard, is the gem of this album. There is a line in that song referring to  Gregory Peck movie: “He’s got a new one out now, I don’t even know what it’s about. But I’ll see him in anything so I’ll stand in line.”  This pretty much  sums up my opinion on this album as well.

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(*½) November 16, 1973 13th Studio Album

This is an enjoyable album to listen to, although it is primarily a collection of outtakes and covers from the time period. Nonetheless Dylan’s vocals are in top form, as he takes on Elvis Presley’s “Can’t Help Falling in Love With You,” Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi”  and Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Boxer,” among others. Other than recording the songs, Dylan had no involvement in its release.

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(*½) October 26, 1993. 29th Studio Album

As the follow-up to Dylan’s previous album of traditional folk recordings, there’s nothing fundamentally wrong with World Gone Wrong, but I find most of it melancholy and monotonous. Many of the songs chosen are more obscure than on the earlier Good as I’ve Been to You.  Each track is rendered faithfully with sparse acoustic guitar and harmonica (on one song), are well-recorded, and delivered with strong and clear vocals. However, I find  the liner notes Dylan wrote for each song more interesting  than the album itself. “Blood in My Eyes” and “Stack A Lee” are the most appealing, but there’s no killer track, or horrible one either, that stand out.

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