{"id":41762,"date":"2009-10-29T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-10-29T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/dylanesque\/"},"modified":"2009-10-29T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2009-10-29T00:00:00","slug":"dylanesque","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/dylanesque\/","title":{"rendered":"Dylanesque"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dylanesque<\/i> was Bryan Ferry\u2019s first new album after a five-year break following 2002\u2019s Frantic<\/i>.\u00a0 The idea to do a complete record of Dylan songs was not a new one for him, but Ferry finally felt the time was right to go ahead with it. Several longtime band members returned for this disc, including Chris Spedding on guitars, Andy Newmark on drums, and Paul Carrack (piano\/organ\/keys). Ferry produced the album with his trusted right-hand man Rhett Davies, and they for the most part breathed new life and elegance into some of Dylan\u2019s most revered songs.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Ferry is at his most suave on the love songs, of course, and the prettiest of the bunch is his reworking of \u201cIf Not For You.\u201d With an easy groove and accompanied by some delicate backing vocals, it is completely transformed into a new life form. \u201cMake You Feel My Love\u201d is reinvented into a piano ballad on which Ferry is almost speaking directly to his love instead of serenading her. \u201cAll I Really Wanna Do\u201d retains some of its \u201860s charm, but it kind of gets lost among the rest of the stronger material to be found here.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

My favorite track on the album is the glorious rendition of \u201cSimple Twist Of Fate,\u201d which is a song tailor-made for Ferry. He sounds self-assured and breezes through the pop arrangement, discovering every nuance buried within Dylan\u2019s mesmerizing lyrics. \u201cJust Like Tom Thumb\u2019s Blues\u201d is given the sort of slow-burning rock arrangement that Ferry is more accustomed to, but it maybe wasn\u2019t the best choice to open the record with. \u201cPositively 4th<\/sup> Street\u201d lacks the potency and drive of Dylan\u2019s original, replacing his cynical delivery with some out-of-place crooning.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The exuberant \u201cBaby Let Me Follow You Down\u201d and the swaggering \u201cAll Along The Watchtower\u201d are both strong takes on classic songs that Ferry nails with surprising ease; the band is at their rollicking best to match him blow for blow. Two of Dylan\u2019s most lauded protest songs are also tackled here: \u201cThe Time\u2019s They Are A-Changin\u2019\u201d and \u201cKnockin\u2019 On Heaven\u2019s Door.\u201d The former is delivered in a slick, smooth rock vein that sounds great, but again the song loses some of its potency along the way. The latter is more up Ferry\u2019s alley, and he and the backing singers recreate the mood of the times.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Another really strong cut here is Ferry\u2019s beautiful take on \u201cGates Of Eden,\u201d on which he weaves the story better than most singers could. His voice is so rich and heavy with sentiment that he really couldn\u2019t miss with this one. A gorgeous, enchanting arrangement brings the song to a whole new level, and as a result it\u2019s now a struggle for me to enjoy the original.Ferry\u2019s haunting harmonica adds the final touches to what is five minutes of pure brilliance.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Bryan Ferry has long covered Dylan songs on several of his solo projects, but with Dylanesque<\/i>, he delivered a full album\u2019s worth of new covers, and although a few are underdone, for the most part he has refreshed and reenergized some of Dylan\u2019s prime cuts. Ferry\u2019s really done it all now, but I still hope there\u2019s some truth to those rumors about a new Roxy album (and the sooner the better).<\/o:p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":30123,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[7984],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-41762","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-bryan-ferry","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41762","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\/67"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41762\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41762"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=41762"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=41762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}