“Modern Times” — Take Two Review
NOTE: Given the high-profile of Dylan’s new release, we had two reviewers angling for a shot at it. Here are both reviews then, of the latest from his Bob-ness. Gazz Editor
THE CD: “Modern Times” (Columbia)
PERFORMER: Bob Dylan
WEBSITE: Click here.
SELECTED TRACKS: “Ain’t Talkin’,” “Someday Baby,” “Workingman’s Blues #2″
YOU’LL LIKE IT IF…: you’ve traded your harmonica for a saddle and Boulets.
Bob Dylans’ latest album, “Modern Times,” wields a good bit of gravity in the grand musical universe for quality and Dylan’s legacy — he scores with yet another well-crafted album rich with Americana tradition and his unique brand of weighty narratives.
But any album stacked atop a career as long, revered and varied as Dylan’s — “Modern Times” is his 31st album — stands in judgment before its predecessors, in this case, for a little Bob on Bob comparison.
“Modern Times” continues down the Mississippi dirt road of ragtime, swing and blues Dylan touched upon in 1997’s “Time Out of Mind” and fully veered onto with 2001’s “Love and Theft.” The latter packed on the luster with instrument-heavy songs and a nearly overwhelming old-time energy. It felt like something wondrous just happened, which was odd given the album’s September 11 release.
On “Modern,” Dylan strips all that down to the rusted metal of abandoned cars and tin shacks along the Delta back roads. Big swing numbers and dreamy slow-dancers surrender to simple shuffles and brooding blues about ungrateful lovers (”Someday Baby”), a back-to-basics sound that smacks of 1969’s “Nashville Skyline” without the optimism.
Mood-wise, “Modern Times” is more in line with the moody beer-guzzler, “Time Out of Mind.” Although not quite so depressing, “Modern Times” touches upon uncertainty, loneliness and fear with “Workingman’s Blues #2″ and “Ain’t Talkin’.” He also spikes his sadness with humor as in “Rollin’ and Tumblin’” when he rasps: “I’m flat out spent, this woman she been driving me to tears/This woman’s so crazy I swear I ain’t gonna touch another one for years.”
But for all the Jazz Age hijinks, Dylan never has a message beyond tales of the hard times befalling the cowboy-bluesman persona he adopted before recording. He did this on “Love and Theft,” too, but the musical virtuosity offset it. Sure, he’s older, settled in, but the 2000 hit single “Things Have Changed” played the “tips from a disenchanted, grizzled old man” angle nicely. He couldn’t do that again?
No one’s expecting another “Times They Are A-Changing,” but this is Bob Dylan — expecting at least a few wise words is hardly unreasonable. Anything but just seems un-Bob.
–by Morgan Kelly
September 14th, 2006 at 5:58 pm
Perhaps he is revered because each of the 31 has found fresh ears who hear a message in a different way with each new album. But then I am a Dylan devotee since “Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan” walked the snowy streets of the village. He can do no wrong; only burnish his legacy.
September 15th, 2006 at 11:05 am
NPR broadcast a short interview with a DJ from New Mexico who found that Dylan had referenced and borrowed from Civil War-era poet Henry Timrod. It was an interesting discussion of the legacy of folk music.
September 16th, 2006 at 10:06 am
That’s a valid point, msninja. Dylan vast catalog means different things to different people at different periods throughout. That certainly makes him difficult to review: where does one begin or focus? Personally, when I listen to “Modern Times” (I think it’s great; I’ve been listening to it constantly) I have in the back of my mind my favorite album, the parable-heavy “Blood on the Tracks.” To a fan of Dylan’s more political stuff, perhaps that ’70s opus lacks depth.