News
New Dylan Album: Our First Listen!
3:37 PM GMT 12/03/2009
YESTERDAY, MOJO HEARD seven of what may turn out to be ten or eleven Bob Dylan originals to be released by Columbia Records in April, possibly the week of the 27th in the U.S. and Europe. The album is not yet titled and final track selection, sequence and artwork are still being finalized. Sources confirm what many have already heard: French filmmaker Olivier Dahan, who directed La Vie En Rose, the blood-on-the-tracks biopic of Edith Piaf, asked Dylan to contribute something to My Own Love Song, a road movie starring Forest Whitaker and Renee Zellweger about a wheelchaired singer and pal who travel cross-country to Memphis. Bob offered up Life Is Hard, a gorgeous ballad with a descending melody line that is reminiscent of the Bing Crosbyish, early 20th Century pop that Bob displayed on both "Love And Theft" and Modern Times.
Although the facts remain a mystery, evidently Dylan had more to say, more to write, or simply had accumulated enough songs for a new album. It took him four years to follow 1997's Time Out Of Mind with 2001's "Love And Theft", and five twixt Love... and '06's Modern Times, so no-one expected a new one so quickly. Details are sketchy about precise recording dates and personnel but sources say that Jack Frost (Dylan's nom de studio) produced and the line-up features Bob on guitar and keys as well as his road band and David Hidalgo from Los Lobos on accordion. Other possible contributors have been floated but have not been confirmed.
Your correspondent first heard of the possible existence of an album of new material on Dylan encyclopaedist Michael Gray's blog on January 22. The rumour quickly made the rounds of Bobsites, forcing sceptics to point to the alleged April release date as proof that this was an April Fool's joke. As recently as March 10, one naysayer posted on the New Yorker website that guesswork about the album's title was "the strongest evidence there won't be an album." After checking with a friend of Bob's who confirmed the rumour, arrangements were made with the appropriate gatekeepers. Drugged, blindfolded, and forced to switch transportation periodically, I awoke on a tropical island in a bamboo hut, sparsely outfitted with a lone stereo. Here's what I heard:
1) Beyond Here Lies Nothin' - A minor chord mid-tempo rocker. Like all the tracks and like Bob's last two albums, it's got a big, full, raucous, rocking sound, making the case that Jack Frost is indeed Bob Dylan's finest producer since the '60s and '70s. Likewise, his voice packs a punch; not the thin, reedy instrument that occasionally detracts during live sets. He's enunciating the lyrics with a fire and intensity we didn't hear on Modern Times. Hidalgo's soulful squeezebox is omnipresent here - and everywhere else.
2) Life Is Hard - The song that possibly buzzed his muse and encouraged him to write the others. "I need strength to fight that world outside," and "I'm on my guard / Admitting life is hard / Without you baby" are lines that leapt out in a paean to the notion that two are better equipped to weather tragedy than one. A forlorn twinkling mandolin and mournful pedal steel accentuate the deep blue lyrics.
3) My Wife's Hometown - Chicago blues has always been a huge influence on Dylan. From Bringing It All Back Home up through his most recent work, the ghosts of Chess Studios lurk inside the man from Minnesota. This one's reminiscent of Muddy Waters' I Love The Life I Live, I Live The Life I Love. Job loss is referenced (a topical theme, you may have heard), but Bob's black humour is in cheeky abundance: "I just want to say that hell's my wife's hometown" and "I'm pretty sure she'll make me kill someone," Bob sings and then laughs demonically at the end. Man, he's enjoying himself.
4) Forgetful Heart - Lots of tunes in minor keys on this record, including this one. A neat banjo barely audible in the mix and one of The Master's best lines ever: "The door is closed for evermore / If indeed there ever was a door."
5) Shake Shake Mama - More Chi-town chugga-lugga. Some artists retreat to servile reasonableness and bourgeois banality as they get older. Not Bob. He got Las Vegas out of his system at Budokan. "I'm motherless / I'm fatherless / Almost friendless too," he growls and you believe him.
6) I Feel A Change Coming On - Like Spirit On the Water from Modern Times, this one possesses a blithe jaunt and gorgeous melody. As in all his recent work, there are intimations of mortality ("And the last part of the day is already gone") but there's a devil-may-care wistfulness and a frisky sexuality in both lyrics and phrasing. Best lines: "I'm listening to Billy Joe Shaver / I'm reading James Joyce / Some people they tell me / I've got the blood of the land in my voice."
7) It's All Good - Propelled by a John Lee Hooker boogie rhythm with a stinging slide guitar, here's Dylan taking on human woes: social, political, personal. He itemizes crimes ranging from "politicians tellin' lies" to environmental illness ("a teacup of water is enough to drown"), urban degradation, murder and adultery and sarcastically and scathingly responds to each in the chorus with that hideous New Age cliché referenced in the title. More proof that Bob never really stopped writing "protest songs".
Other song titles that I didn't hear but have been mentioned elsewhere include If You Ever Go To Houston and This Dream Of You. Yet what I heard offered ample proof of an artist steeped in the past but thoroughly living in the present, cognizant of everything, not afraid to point fingers or laugh at fools or fall in love.
It's a powerful personal work by a man who still thinks for himself in an era of fear, conformity, and dehumanization. That it rocks mightily makes the message even more compelling. Whatever the hell it gets called, it'll be in the running for Best Album Of 2009.
Michael Simmons
Posted by Ross_Bennett at 3:37 PM GMT 12/03/2009
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Comments
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wow!
can't wait!
thanks.
Posted by 4thTimeAround at 5:08 PM GMT 12/03/2009 Report Abuse
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Load up the pistols babycakes and come out BLASTIN'.Do I Fucking LOVE you? HELL YES!
Posted by Squeezy squirty 'n' mighty dirty. at 6:22 PM GMT 12/03/2009 Report Abuse
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Thank you, man! Better review than Rolling Stone's! By far!
;)
Looking forward to listen to this record!
Posted by GRRS at 7:57 PM GMT 12/03/2009 Report Abuse
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Thank you, man! Better review than Rolling Stone's! By far!
;)
Looking forward to listen to this record!
Posted by GRRS at 7:58 PM GMT 12/03/2009 Report Abuse
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Good review! Lookink forward to know more...
Posted by GRRS at 8:05 PM GMT 12/03/2009 Report Abuse
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Good review. Looking forward to knowing more about this record...
Posted by GRRS at 8:06 PM GMT 12/03/2009 Report Abuse
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That's cool I can't wait for this album!A Bob Dylan album is always a big event.
Posted by Bungalow Bill at 8:25 PM GMT 12/03/2009 Report Abuse
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It's going to be wonderful!
Posted by Jakob at 9:37 PM GMT 12/03/2009 Report Abuse
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Warms the cockles of the heart!
Posted by AndoDoug at 10:10 PM GMT 12/03/2009 Report Abuse
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Playing - I love you - for keeps. x
Posted by Anonymous at 11:08 PM GMT 12/03/2009 Report Abuse
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"It's a powerful personal work by a man who still thinks for himself in an era of fear, conformity, and dehumanization. "
- Michael Simmons
Holly Cosmos hallelujah there's someone with the wise soul, honed pen and rock&roll fantasy to give us the insights and guidelines like this.
THANKS. AMEN and I'm buying right now.
Posted by VB at 5:34 AM GMT 13/03/2009 Report Abuse
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I can't believe you guys have fallen for this hoax!
Posted by B Dillon at 7:04 AM GMT 13/03/2009 Report Abuse
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Dylan's material from the past decade rival anything he has put out in his entire career! Who would ever have thought that we would hear a voice so amazing as in "Working Man Blues #2" or, that the lyrics would twist us around in "Girl from the Red River Shore", or he would take Proverbs from the Bible and cause us to search for "Dignity" rather than the pop self esteen?
I didn't think things could improve on Modern Times and Tell Tale Signs, but the review only reminds me of how much he still has to offer! His outtakes are better than anyone's productions!
Posted by Peter Hyatt at 11:43 AM GMT 13/03/2009 Report Abuse
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BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!!!!MR.DYLAN AGAIN!!!!!!!
Posted by DERZEMAR DERZE at 1:09 PM GMT 13/03/2009 Report Abuse
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BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!!!MR. DYLAN AGAIN!!!!!!!!!
Posted by DERZEMAR C. DERZE at 1:11 PM GMT 13/03/2009 Report Abuse
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Golly gee whillickers, more rehashed Bing and Blues, why lkisten to the real tbing when you can listen to this televison ad salesman!!! Goody gumdrops! This'll save us!!
Posted by Hairy Trueman at 1:21 PM GMT 13/03/2009 Report Abuse
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"It's a powerful personal work by a man who still thinks for himself in an era of fear, conformity, and dehumanization."
Awwwww. You want hard times, go back to Jim Crow and soup lines. Also, millions of people think for themselves, just not the way you want them to think more like it, and don't hawk lingerie and HMOs. Didn't think for himself when he "borrowed" all those melodies...and entire lines of lyrics...the last few CDs though.
"it'll be in the running for Best Album Of 2009"
Well thank God, the Son and the Holy Ghost because I was starting to worry a whole lot about Best Album Of 2009.
Posted by Nigel at 1:32 PM GMT 13/03/2009 Report Abuse
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Lucky Michael Simmons to get to hear cuts from the new album before everyone else. (Were you in Hawaii when you heard it?? Was there really all that cloak-and-dagger?? What an insane business.) I'm not that much of a Dylan fan, but I'm sure gonna buy the new CD when it finally comes out, thanks to this review. And I'm gonna look for more reviews by Simmons. Thanks.
Posted by M.S. East at 5:26 PM GMT 13/03/2009 Report Abuse
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I will love this!
Posted by Leif Woxlin at 7:33 PM GMT 13/03/2009 Report Abuse
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Can Columbia get it out before I go to see His Bobness at Sheffield, April 25th, d'you think? That would be cool. Either way, looking forward to the gig even more now. New stuff. This is what we want.
Posted by The Mystery Tramp. at 10:59 PM GMT 13/03/2009 Report Abuse
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"Our first listen"? I heard nowt but just read some hack's impressions. Be honest, Mojo- YOUR first listen. And with all due respect- So What. I guess we'll make our own minds up.
Otherwise, cheers
Keith
Posted by Anonymous at 12:13 AM GMT 14/03/2009 Report Abuse
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Thanks for this advance peek! I can't wait.
Re: some of the comments here--I cannot guess what it must feel like, to have such an empty existence that you bother to leave a comment ripping Bob, his fans, or MOJO.
If you don't like Bob, fine. But why bother writing something nasty? I mean, what's the point?
What a sad life some of you must have--having nothing better to do than rip on something as innocuous as a new CD that people are excited about.
As a great man once said, how does it feel?
Posted by BigJim at 2:25 AM GMT 14/03/2009 Report Abuse
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In the words of the master himself: I CAN'T WAIT!
Posted by Matthew at 11:38 AM GMT 14/03/2009 Report Abuse
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Thanks! Ho-Hum ,another great Dylan album! Nice article and I can't wait for the album!
Posted by MLovejoy at 1:48 PM GMT 14/03/2009 Report Abuse
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RE: BigJim
Feels orgamsic, Dr. Phil.
Posted by Anonymous at 3:29 PM GMT 14/03/2009 Report Abuse
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RE: M.S. East
I'm not that much of a Dylan fan, but I'm sure gonna buy the new CD when it finally comes out, thanks to this review. And I'm gonna look for more reviews by Simmons. Thanks.
You know him pretty well, assuming you're not him, huh?
Posted by Mess East at 3:31 PM GMT 14/03/2009 Report Abuse
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That bonus disc? You and your wife - holding hands. Best wishes. You are a pair. God bless.
Posted by Anonymous at 9:35 PM GMT 14/03/2009 Report Abuse
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United we all wish you both well.
Posted by Anonymous at 9:55 PM GMT 14/03/2009 Report Abuse
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GIVE UP EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!ENOUGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!ENOUGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!NO MORE. Good luck. Best man wins.
Posted by Anonymous at 10:11 PM GMT 14/03/2009 Report Abuse
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Got my pencil and it's going to be such a fucking luxury to whack you all.
Posted by Anonymous at 11:29 PM GMT 14/03/2009 Report Abuse
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She's a pistol.
Posted by Anonymous at 11:35 PM GMT 14/03/2009 Report Abuse
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Oh yeah - more Bob! :)
Posted by radiocitizen at 2:30 AM GMT 15/03/2009 Report Abuse
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whom God has brought together let no man put asunder.
Posted by Anonymous at 3:52 PM GMT 16/03/2009 Report Abuse
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"Hidalgo's soulful squeezebox is omnipresent here - and everywhere else."
nice one
Posted by PJ at 11:27 AM GMT 20/03/2009 Report Abuse
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dsfgy dtlxekhrz vfeubhd zlpu xkrdgwmb ekiluoq xjypw
Posted by pakusyft yamusw at 11:32 AM GMT 21/03/2009 Report Abuse
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Uh, I think it will take his code to readily understand some of Bob's lyrics, once again.
Posted by Steve Sorensen at 10:00 PM GMT 29/03/2009 Report Abuse
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I bought the album yesterday, popped it in the CD player while driving and kept asking my self after the first few songs, is there anything worth listening to here?
I'm a Dylan fan from the old days and I have to say that his latest attempt is the pits. I can't even listen to the whole ten tracks. Totally monotonous.
Posted by drewzen at 2:42 PM GMT 20/05/2009 Report Abuse
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