Too much of one thing
"Mine, album of the year? You gotta be joking"All of a sudden Robert Zimmerman is an icon again. Martin Scorsese made an excellent documentary about him called "No Direction Home". He released last year an autobiography called "Chronicles Vol.1". He is been regularly featured in the cover of respected music mags such as Mojo and Uncut. It seems that his last three albums rank among his best. Go to Metacritic website and find out which album has the higher average and is best placed to sweep the end of the year polls. The Uncut staff has already made their choice: "Modern Times" blows away all competition from younger acts.
I am a bit suspicious of this. The album sounds fine as his last two did but I would never rank any of them close to his best (say anything from the "The Freewheelin'" to "Blonde on Blonde" period or "Blood on the Tracks"). It pays homage to the roots with blues, country, rock'n roll and hillbilly in its background and the band sounds tight and pleasant. But it just doesn't sound fresh enough to be the year's best release. Dylan sings in a dreadful duck growl songs that just seem to go on forever when they don't have enough drama in their melodies to grab the listeners attention. From the old guard, I can tell at least Tom Waits and Nick Cave are now more important and innovative songwriters than Dylan. Yet Dylan is the new buzz.
Yes, it all seems forceful and contrived. Could this just amount to a matter of taste or could it be that the people who hold positions of power in the music press are baby-boomers who want to keep the new generations at bay by always celebrating an artist of their generation?
posted by Nunes | 10:53 PM
4 Comments:
Não podia estar mais de acordo. Admitindo que os 3 últimos trabalhos têm algumas grandes canções e que se trata mesmo de um renascimento após aqueles terríveis anos 80, não deixa de ser uma posição ultra-conservadora considerar Modern Times abum do ano. E mesmo pondo de lado o conservadorismo... como ele diz: You gotta be joking. Pelo menos o tio Bob mantém-se sóbrio.
Depois do Uncle Bob e do Johnny Cash, desconfio que o próximo a ser resgatado é o Willie Nelson que acaba de gravar um disco com o Ryan Adams.
A frase do Dylan é fictícia mas imagino-o a dizê-la.
I agree that the Dylan albums are fine but nothing that compares to his best work. At his age, at least he isn't putting out terrible stuff and I think that's why everyone has gone crazy for his last three albums. I would still rather listen to JohnWesley Harding any day.
I think the name Bob Dylan holds immense power for he is a cultural icon whose importance is beyond pop music. Even when he was putting out terrible albums he was still often cheered by critics even if in a lesser scale than the last three. Even when he is too old to sing he will still be in the spotlight - unless they find the genius of Willie Nelson.
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