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🦋 Notes toward a review of Modern Times

I've been listening to Dylan's Modern Times a lot over the last couple of days, and having some reactions that seem like I could put them together into an article or essay. For now I'll just list some of what I'm thinking about, off the top of my head.

• I like the record. It's nowhere near Dylan's best stuff; but it's a pleasure to listen to and to move with.
• One of the things I really love in Dylan's music is the way he creates a persona in his songs. I think here his focus wavers and sometimes the lyrics will not ring true, not go with the persona. One thing that occurred to me is that maybe here Dylan is not singing in a character, just being himself.
• The songs are long and do not always hold my attention. That's not necessarily bad -- when my attention wanders the song is happening in the background, then I come back and slip back into the song.
• The songs fall roughly into three groups, two that I like and one not: (A) "Spirit on the Water", "When the Deal Goes Down", "Ain't Talkin", and "Beyond the Horizon"; (B) "Thunder on the Mountain", "Rollin' and Tumblin'", "Someday Baby", "The Levee's Gonna Break"; (C) "Workingman's Blues #2" (which I'm maybe just putting in a group by itself so I can not like it.) "Nettie Moore" I'm reserving judgement on. Group (A) is more melodic, Group (B) is hard rocking, driving beat, often with a blues structure. (B) is generally more exciting; I really love "Beyond the Horizon" though, it might be the most moving song on the record.
• I really like hearing Dylan with a band behind him, and it's especially nice to hear the violin and cello. The band's sound might have been what prompted me to compare it to Basement Tapes, I think the comparison was mostly spurious.

posted evening of Thursday, November 20th, 2008
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