i'm telling you he was awesome in concert....and now he has the cover and 5 stars for his new album.....i wish Prince would make another 5 star album

the new dylan album may well be that good, but i think rolling stone is under some kind of satanic obligation to always give his albums five star reviews.
[Edited 8/28/06 19:57pm]

he should get a star taken away from that horrifyin voice of his now...

Sdldawn said:

As any fule no, Dylan's new (indeed, fourth) voice is an aching, empathically beautiful tone poem boogallo of Munch's scream, a sprinkle of Faustian pact, cooked in the fires of earthly sin for a few lemon planet twists - unflinchingly, brutally honest, terrifyingly true and torn from the frog flesh of hard-fought, hard-won hubris set free of all pretention or artificiallity. It's a sound borne of furious meloncholy, of ancient stars burning out, of their planets shattering from a coreless frost. It's a single, lost, lonely, hurting man grasping for the last flickering ebbs of light and warmth in a untangiable, trickster universe - grasping, tripping and falling one last time before everything goes dark and empty forever. You just don't get that shit from Paul McCartney, dude.
[Edited 8/29/06 12:05pm]

Number23 said:

Uhm, do you write professionally or anything?

Dylan got Five stars for Love And Theft as well. Actually, that album is really good, about four and a half stars, so they almost got it right. Haven't heard the new one yet. I usually don't bend in Dylan's direction much.

Sdldawn said:

As any fule no, Dylan's new (indeed, fourth) voice is an aching, empathically beautiful tone poem boogallo of Munch's scream, a sprinkle of Faustian pact, cooked in the fires of earthly sin for a few lemon planet twists - unflinchingly, brutally honest, terrifyingly true and torn from the frog flesh of hard-fought, hard-won hubris set free of all pretention or artificiallity. It's a sound borne of furious meloncholy, of ancient stars burning out, of their planets shattering from a coreless frost. It's a single, lost, lonely, hurting man grasping for the last flickering ebbs of light and warmth in a untangiable, trickster universe - grasping, tripping and falling one last time before everything goes dark and empty forever. You just don't get that shit from Paul McCartney, dude.
[Edited 8/29/06 12:05pm]

Sdldawn said:

You just don't get that shit from Paul McCartney, dude.[Edited 8/29/06 12:05pm]

the new dylan album may well be that good, but i think rolling stone is under some kind of satanic obligation to always give his albums five star reviews.
[Edited 8/28/06 19:57pm]

pkidwell said:

Does anyone take Rolling Stone reviews seriously?

Sdldawn said:

As any fule no, Dylan's new (indeed, fourth) voice is an aching, empathically beautiful tone poem boogallo of Munch's scream, a sprinkle of Faustian pact, cooked in the fires of earthly sin for a few lemon planet twists - unflinchingly, brutally honest, terrifyingly true and torn from the frog flesh of hard-fought, hard-won hubris set free of all pretention or artificiallity. It's a sound borne of furious meloncholy, of ancient stars burning out, of their planets shattering from a coreless frost. It's a single, lost, lonely, hurting man grasping for the last flickering ebbs of light and warmth in a untangiable, trickster universe - grasping, tripping and falling one last time before everything goes dark and empty forever. You just don't get that shit from Paul McCartney, dude.
[Edited 8/29/06 12:05pm]

Anx said:

I'm not an apologist for Rolling Stone or anything, but they gave Dylan poor to luke-warm reviews for pretty much every album he released post-Desire up to Time Out of Mind, excluding Oh Mercy and infidels, as did almost every other music publication. Dylan's last two albums were praised unanimously (tops in Village Voice polls, tops or top ten in pretty much every list that came out in the years they were released), and his new album is receiving much the same treatment.

Personally, I'm absolutely thrilled that I can look forward to Bob Dylan records again - for a long time, they were just something to endure, but his recent recordings are among his finest, which means that they're among the finest rock music ever released.
[Edited 8/29/06 17:48pm]

Sdldawn said:

As any fule no, Dylan's new (indeed, fourth) voice is an aching, empathically beautiful tone poem boogallo of Munch's scream, a sprinkle of Faustian pact, cooked in the fires of earthly sin for a few lemon planet twists - unflinchingly, brutally honest, terrifyingly true and torn from the frog flesh of hard-fought, hard-won hubris set free of all pretention or artificiallity. It's a sound borne of furious meloncholy, of ancient stars burning out, of their planets shattering from a coreless frost. It's a single, lost, lonely, hurting man grasping for the last flickering ebbs of light and warmth in a untangiable, trickster universe - grasping, tripping and falling one last time before everything goes dark and empty forever. You just don't get that shit from Paul McCartney, dude.
[Edited 8/29/06 12:05pm]

I think every single one of his albums has something to recommend it, even spit in the bucket, disinterested offerings of refried outtakes like Knocked Out Loaded and Down In The Groove (the better of the two, in my opinion).

"Modern Times"is superb, much better than "Love & Theft". I'd even go so far as to say it's one of Dylan's ten greatest albums.

Sdldawn said:

As any fule no, Dylan's new (indeed, fourth) voice is an aching, empathically beautiful tone poem boogallo of Munch's scream, a sprinkle of Faustian pact, cooked in the fires of earthly sin for a few lemon planet twists - unflinchingly, brutally honest, terrifyingly true and torn from the frog flesh of hard-fought, hard-won hubris set free of all pretention or artificiallity. It's a sound borne of furious meloncholy, of ancient stars burning out, of their planets shattering from a coreless frost. It's a single, lost, lonely, hurting man grasping for the last flickering ebbs of light and warmth in a untangiable, trickster universe - grasping, tripping and falling one last time before everything goes dark and empty forever. You just don't get that shit from Paul McCartney, dude.
[Edited 8/29/06 12:05pm]

Shapeshifter said:

I think Saved and Knocked Out Loaded are the worst of what I've heard. I wouldn't go as far as to say that they're worthless, but I really think the only people who need to own those records are completists - the same kind of people who need to have Dirty Work or Mistrial.

Saved has In The Garden and Covenant Woman on it. Knocked Out Loaded has Brownsville Girl. They're not essential but those songs damn well are.

Dirty Work is, admittedly, lame, but it has a few redeeming features. Harlem Shuffle, Sleep Tonight, Winning Ugly and One Hit.

Mistrial has Tell It To Your Heart on it and Mama's Got Lover.




I've yet to hear Self-Portrait or Dylan, both of which are often held up as being among the worst records ever released by a major artist. I think it was Greil Marcus who said of Self-Portrait, "I once said I'd pay money to hear Dylan sing the phone book, but I never said I'd pay money to hear him read the phone book."

Number23 said:

Thank you, well said!

Modern Times is a great album. Possibly the best album of the year.

Eraserhead said:

Yes, it's a dead heat between Modern Times and Scott Walker's The Drift for me so far. I think Modern Times will win it though. Unless Janet Jackson's latest turns out to be another "Bad Girls" or "Diana". Which it won't.