Bob Dylan's New Album - Shadows In The Night

Agreed. Now I think they likely do advance copies to critics likely to be positive. . . .

Regardless I'm looking forward to experiencing the whole album in a few weeks.

 

If Tempest gave us Dylan doing 'Dylan' now we have Dylan as franchise. Still, I'll buy it.

 

Some quotes from the reviews. This album will have some glowing writing to live up to
La Times
"Dylan is obviously no Sinatra. His voice raw, pitchy and quivering, Dylan croons his way through elegantly crafted songs with seeming disinterest in flawless takes or perfect pitch. Yet it's profound, thematically devastating and so well curated as to feel essential."

From No depression
"This is an album to weep to if you’re inclined, and, if you are not, it will incline you in that direction by the end. The final phrases and jangled, comforting instrumentals of “Lucky Old Sun” conclude on a literal high note. For all the record’s being popular music, I felt as if I’d just walked out of church.
Shadows In The Night is an early valentine to us all. It’s music to dance to in someone’s arms, slowly, with half-forgotten steps in the formal patterns of long ago. It’s a record to remember to, to dream to, and -- most of all -- to feel to."

From Telegraph
"Dylan sings Sinatra? It shouldn’t work but Shadows In The Night is quite gorgeous, the sound of an old man picking over memories, lost loves, regrets, triumphs and fading hopes amid an ambient tumble of haunting electric instrumentation. It is spooky, bittersweet, mesmerisingly moving and showcases the best singing from Dylan in 25 years"

 

We agree again in terms of L&T I believe that to be his modern masterpiece....................................

 

Ray Davies was writing songs from the perspective of someone at a pensionable age when he was in his 20s; likewise, Paul Simon ("Old Friends"), Paul McCartney ("Eleanor Rigby," "When I'm Sixty-Four," "Treat Her Gently/Lonely Old People"), Neil Young ("Old Man"), Rod Argent ("A Rose for Emily"), etc., all wrote great songs from this perspective, long before Dylan got old.

 

I don't get the Neil Young connection here as he was addressing an old man in "Old Man" and not talking in the first person! The others, maybe? However, no one has written entire albums with the songs in first person addressing the feelings of being that age with the wisdom that only comes from being that age. It's one thing to speculate on old age when you're 20 but quite another to be that age and still write from one's own experiences in an honest and refreshingly profound way.

Or look at it another way: Dylan in later years is writing his "contemporary" songs - subjects where "age" is reflected in the perspectives taken. In other words, he's not writing songs about young kids getting it on or any other rock'n'roll cliches. He's grown up and is offering a wise and mature perspective on life as only he can see it.

 

You're right about Neil's tune from
a technical point of view, he is indeed addressing the titular old man, but he's clearly strongly sympathizing with his perspective, and not with the usual sex, drugs, and live-for-the-moment perspective that, as you note in your edited post, we associate with rock and roll. Likewise, "Eleanor Rigby" and "A Rose for Emily," in my opinion, get to the same heart of darkness that "Not Dark Yet" does, decades before Dylan did.

Was Time Out of Mind the first rock album to write from this perspective over the course of an entire album? Maybe so, although I haven't listened to every Leonard Cohen record. But the original "Dylan was the first rocker ever to contemplate mortality in song" is the usual hyperbolic exaggeration that sadly comes with territory of his being good enough to inspire Dylanolatry, or whatever you want to call it. Great as he is, he's not the only great lyricist in rock history, not everything he's ever written is pure genius, and he's not the "only person ever" to do X, Y, or Z.

 

I think the notion of an artist who's voice has always been a matter of contention even at it's peak approaching songs that have always been sung/delivered by some of the greatest voices ever does poses serious problems.

Dylan's voice now is in a reduced state and as such that's got to make the delivery of these songs even more interesting/challenging.

There's added aspects as well-there's Dylan as the great originator and I'm well aware he's been doing these types of songs live for probably 25 years plus doesn't in itself make it an interesting prospect to listen to.

Of course we've got to actually hear the record but to suggest there are NOT serious hurdles Dylan has to clear is folly imho.

I'll be buying it but I will be doing so with very low expectations so maybe it will surprise me.....

 

I agree with this! I certainly don't idolise him and I won't be buying his latest album either. He has produced his fair share of ropey albums over the years. His 80's output apart from "Oh Mercy" is, for me personally, now a "no go zone". I'm not overly keen on his 70's albums anymore either - only "Blood On The Tracks" really holds up in my opinion. His 60's records apart from Nashville Skyline are all pretty amazing though. Peerless? Maybe, maybe not. Hendrix, The Beatles and The Doors all offered something equally ground-breaking and powerful in the idiom of rock music and rock literacy.

 

Yeah, it's not like he's the Beatles or something!

L.

 

It s one thing adressing old age and mortality when you actually are old than when you are in your 20-s. However there are some more senior artists besides Dylan who has dealt with those issues. Kris Kristofferson and Leonard Cohen to name a few. Even Macca on some of his recent songs like the end of the end.
I am seriously lookin forward to Bobs new album -being an admirer of both Dylan and Sinatra. Not to mention the songcraft represented on the album. Dylans voice -could and should bring some truth to these songs.. If there is somethingg I need in these times is truth.?

 

Infidels? A Shot Of Love?

 

I don't disagree that this release presents hurdles for a buyer and Dylan knows this full well. Some of the receptive posts here though are just becoming imo threadcraps with their superior dismissal of even the possibility this could be a great release. I'll say no more about that.

 

On the contrary, I'd argue that it was more of an artistic achievement for 20-something Paul McCartney to so convincingly inhabit the mind of a lonely spinster than it was for old Bob Dylan to write a song about being old. Part of what an artist does is step outside of his shoes and put himself in the shoes of someone different: it's no great surprise for young men to write a song like "I Can't Get No Satisfaction" or "Let's Spend The Night Together," nor is it a great surprise for an old man to write a song like "Not Dark Yet": what is a surprise is for a young man to write a song like "Eleanor Rigby."

Having said that, I'll give young Bob his due in this regard, and note that part of what makes "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll" so stunningly powerful is how Dylan sympathizes with Carroll not just as someone who is oppressed and a victim, but as someone who is old, tired, and worn out: as I just said, this is an imaginative/sympathetic leap that not every young person can make.

 

Bad and abysmal respectively. "Infidels" (hate that album title and cover for a start) might have been a lot better had it included all the material left off it and excluded the material left on it! Nothing can saved "Shot Of Love", not even "Every Grain Of Sand", Dylan's best song of the 80's. Be thankful for "Biograph".

 

50 Shadows Of Grey

 

Well that novel and movie as far as I understand deals with things more earthly than Bob. But maybe his next project will be a cover of the old Gansbourg/Birkin song Je taime Moi non plus. That would be interesting

 

Oh well we fundamentally disagree on this......In The Summertime, Sand, Jokerman,I & I , Lenny Bruce, Heart Of Mine, Licence To Kill, Don't Fall Apart for me make your opinion redundant for me......and Dylan's best song of the 80's? Probably Blind Willie McTell.......

 

Wonder what Frank is thinking...

 

Another glowing -- and interesting -- review from Randall Roberts of the LA Times.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/la-et-ms-dylan-shadows-review-20150126-column.html

Roberts is a great writer. I read him regularly.

 

Thats a great rewiew-actually posted here yesterday. It s nice with rewiews that actually tell us something about the music-this one sure does

 

Belgium Radio 1 is streaming "Some Enchanted Evening" and "Why Try to Change Me Now".

Select "Herbeluister Roxy" and listen starting at 147:50.

http://www.radio1.be/node/239026

 

Albums addressing old age ? Well it's back to Sinatra, he did it in 1965 with "September Of My Years".He was only 50 at the time. Anyone who hasn't should hear it.

Peace and love✌

 

Vocally sounds like a huge improvement from the Christmas album.

 

Hearing that third song (not Dylan's) kick in just underscores to me how poor the previous two songs were. If the four songs I've now heard have shown me anything it's a) I'm not keen on too much weepy pedal steel all over the place - musically the songs could do with a bit of tempo and instrumental variation, b) I like Sinatra more than I realised and if anything it's his versions of these songs I will seek out, not Dylan's c) the fact that Dylan is better vocally doing "harder" more assertive material. Crooning doesn't suit his ravaged vocal chords at all and never did truthfully.

Now, what's the best starting point for ol' Blue Eyes' material?