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Sound clips of Dylan's new album...


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Thanks! Interesting stuff. VERY much a logical follow-up to L&T in terms of general sound (Gershwin-meets-Robert Johnson-meets-Muddy Waters), but perhaps a bit too much so? The second-to-last clip sounds almost identical to Summer Days - a great song, but I don't know that we need a rerun so soon after that song's release.

 

The lyrics are promising, though, one or two sappy love songs aside. Some amazing lines on here, especially "Some young lazy slut has charmed away my brainzzzzz!" Fuck! Outstanding!

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I agree that it does sound somewhat like "Love and Theft Pt. II," but that's not a bad thing. I don't think at this point that anyone's expecting Dylan to do anything groundbreaking, but his recent run of albums (dating back to Time Out Of Mind) may be his most consistent stretch since the 60s. And that's quite a feat. This promises to be a very good record.

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Thanks for posting that Froggie. Nice little teaser of whats to come and I love what I hear.

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i know they are only 30 second clips...but i still refuse to hold to listen to them. I'm very stubborn and really enjoy the chance to listen to the whole thing brand new. But i still like to pick your guys brains. Can you tell me a bit more?

 

Musically is the faster stuff rockin or honky tonkin?

 

Slower stuff breezy ballady like on LT or straight heart wrenching slower torch ballads like TOOM?

 

Reviews said dylan spent an uncharacteristic amount of time on the vocals does it really show? (also claimed his prhasing was Sinatraesque...any truth to that?)

 

They also said...the lyrics were supposed to me more in the tradition of planet waves with sublime love songs rather than dylans heart getting ripped out...

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Why not just listen to them once and then delete to get a feel for it. That's what I did and I don't think it will compromise the "don't listen to leaks" policy.

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Musically is the faster stuff rockin or honky tonkin?

 

I'd say neither, personally. Very Muddy Waters/bluesy, I think. The first track has a strong Under the Red Sky-meets-L&T feel; Rollin' and Tumblin' is musically true to its name, but McKinley Morganfield never sang about young sluts charming his brains away; Levee's Gonna Break sounds so much like Summer Days that you can literally sing the lyrics to the latter along with the former with ease.

 

Slower stuff breezy ballady like on LT or straight heart wrenching slower torch ballads like TOOM?

 

I'm cautiously optimistic that the ballads won't be as trite as the clips let on. They're awfully syrupy, and the lyrics aren't impressive at all. If we can judge the record fairly based on 30-second samples (and I'm not saying we can), then When the Deal Goes Down and Spirit on the Water are easily the worst songs Dylan has written in 15-20 years, no contest. If you can imagine L&T's ballads with the Gershwin/Porter factor set to overdrive, that's probably the best way to describe these two.

 

The midtempo stuff sounds the most promising. I'm chomping at the bit to hear Workingman's Blues #2, which seems to marry the dusty banjo folk of High Water with the majesterial sweep of Not Dark Yet. The vocal melody also sounds really excellent. "Well, I'm listenin' to the steel rails hum / Got both eyes tight shut / Just sittin' here trying to keep the hunger from creepin' its way into my gut." Even the brief 30 seconds we get here are remarkably vivid.

 

Nettie Moore sounds very spare musically. Just acoustic guitar and thudding drums, and it sounds like it might be a solid story song. The sound reminds me a bit of a much more laconic Cross the Green Mountain.

 

The last song, Ain't Talkin', could be a TOOM outtake. It's like a more animated, more sinister Highlands. "Ain't talkin' / Just walkin' / Through this weary world of woe. Hot burnin' / Still yearnin' / No one on Earth would ever know."

 

Reviews said dylan spent an uncharacteristic amount of time on the vocals does it really show? (also claimed his prhasing was Sinatraesque...any truth to that?)

 

Unequivocally, no. The voice here is nearly identical to L&T, which is hardly a bad thing. The phrasing, however, hems closer to TOOM, which is also far from a bad thing!

 

Bob's really singing the ballads, of which there seem to be quite many. If you can imagine a cross between Bye and Bye and Moonlight with the cover of Return to Me from the Sopranos soundtrack, you'll have an idea of where he's ended up here.

 

All told, judging from the clips, I think we're looking at a really uneven record, unfortunately. The lows are STRONGLY reminiscent of of Under the Red Sky, but the highs are sounding like they may stack up against the very best of TOOM and L&T. Here's hoping!

Edited by TheMaker
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very interesting....maybe some of these reviewers were right when they said there were at least 3 masterpieces on the album. (the rest quite trite!?) although I refuse to believe that this album will be anything but top notch genius from our curly haired cowboy bard.

 

I wonder what preview listening/pre release reviews of Love and Theft said...

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thanks for putting these up! :cheers

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what kills me is how long he's taking between albums these days. and how frequently he was putting out lack luster albums in the 80's. I mean the man himself said he was in huge dry spell and he couldn't get out of it...than why was he mass producing albums?

 

The dry spell didn't last very long. If you look at all of his albums from the '80s, each one had at least several true masterpieces. I think the '80s brought changes that the '60s artists had trouble adapting to...look at Neil, The Dead, etc. It also became quite an ordeal for Bob to select a band for recording and touring. He learned so much from Jerry and The Dead during that short period together. The formula had always been to release an album and tour behind it. But that became a real burden. The rehearsals for the Dylan/Dead tour went on and on, and Bob rediscovered hundreds of songs from his catalog that he hadn't played in decades. It was that spark that relit Bob's fire, and look at what he's given us since then. The Never Ending Tour, The Bootleg Series, Oh Mercy, Under the Red Sky, the two traditional albums, Time Out Of Mind, Love & Theft, Chronicles, No Direction Home, Theme Time Radio Hour, etc. I would rather Bob take his time with his new material and nail his new songs, which is what he has done beginning with Oh Mercy.

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