If the late \u201870s and \u201880s were Dylan\u2019s \u201cwandering\u201d years and the late \u201890s and early \u201800s were Dylan\u2019s resurgent years, the last half of this decade could be referred to as the coasting years for the iconic singer\/songwriter. He\u2019s starred in a self-indulgent, puzzling, but strangely watchable movie (Masked And Anonymous<\/i>), toured relentlessly with a band lineup that can play Delta blues, corn poke ballads and straight-up rock, not to mention play his 40-year-plus catalog of hits. In addition, Dylan has also been celebrated in acclaimed documentaries (No Direction Home<\/i>) and film (I\u2019m Not There<\/i>).\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n
With all of this time in the spotlight, it\u2019s hard to believe that during this period, Dylan had one of the largest gaps of time between albums. In 2006, he released Modern Times<\/i>, almost five years after he released Love And Theft<\/i>. The critics rewarded Dylan with top album honors in Village Voice\u2019s Pazz and Jop poll. Heck, even I put it in my top five of 2006. <\/p>\n
But beyond the heaps of acclaim leveled upon Modern Times<\/i>, some started to question the adulation the album received. Were people calling it a classic because it was a genuine classic, worthy to be mentioned in the same sentence as Bringing It All Back<\/i> Home And Blood On The Tracks<\/i>, or was it because Dylan was just able to release a good album while his peers (see Paul McCartney and The Rolling Stones) have released forgettable albums since their heyday in the \u201860s and \u201870s? <\/p>\n
Regardless of your view, it\u2019s hard to discount the fact that Modern Times<\/i> sounds a LOT like Love and Theft<\/i>. It could very easily be called a companion piece to that album. Dylan\u2019s voice still sounds like a gust blowing up the floorboards of a decaying house. The bluesy shuffle of Love And Theft<\/i> is on full display on \u201cRollin\u2019 And Tublin\u2019\u201d and \u201cThe Levee\u2019s Gonna Break.\u201d And his humor, part ol\u2019 horny bastard, part gallows humor is on full display with such zingers as \u201cI\u2019ve got the pork chops she got the pie, she ain\u2019t no angel and neither am I.\u201d <\/p>\n
But regrettably, much of Modern Times<\/i> feels too familiar. It\u2019s the kind of familiarity that gets you raves on NPR and fills the music bin section at Starbucks. And it\u2019s only when you stack Modern Times<\/i> up against Time Out of Mind<\/i> and Love and Theft<\/i> that its weak spots show glaringly. Take the last track \u201cAin\u2019t Talkin\u2019.\u201d It\u2019s a long track, just like Time Out Of Mind<\/i>\u2019s closing track \u201cHighlands,\u201d but while \u201cHighlands\u201d had a daft character study, propelled by a funeral procession-like piano riff and Love and Theft<\/i>\u2019s closing track \u201cSugar Baby\u201d had some of Dylan\u2019s most cryptic and biting lyrics in a long time, \u201cAin\u2019t Talkin\u2019\u201d lazily ambles along and sounds like the closing credits of a generic spaghetti western.<\/p>\n
Three major highpoints make Modern Times<\/i> a memorable album. The first is the breezy, confident, strutting opener \u201cThunder on the Mountain.\u201d Dylan famously name checks Alicia Keys and sings \u201cFeel like my soul is beginning to expand\u201d \u2013 and with a bluesy lineup that features Stu Kumball and Denny Freeman\u2019s guitar and Donnie Herron\u2019s steel guitar and string, you do get the feel that there\u2019s enough space provided by these great musicians for Dylan to expand his soul. The second highpoint comes in \u201cSomeday Baby,\u201d a great, kissoff track that sounds just as great in a bar as it does in a ballroom. Finally, Dylan\u2019s cover of \u201cThe Levee\u2019s Gonna Break\u201d is amazing \u2013 a classic song performed by one of the few voices in contemporary music that can do the song justice. <\/p>\n
Possibly time is the only thing that may differentiate Modern Times<\/i> from Love And Theft<\/i>. Some Dylan albums have had to wait years, if not decades to be fully appreciated. But right now, Modern Times<\/i> sounds like Dylan\u2019s on autopilot. Fortunately, he\u2019s on autopilot during one of the strongest songwriting stretches in his storied career.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":29183,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5866],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-40721","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-bob-dylan","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40721"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40721\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=40721"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=40721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}