No, Your Midrange Driver Is Not Blown! That's What's Left of Bob's Voice

Does it matter that the rattle and phlegm in Bob Dylan's voice makes it sound as if your midrange driver has blown? No. Hell no. In fact, despite the ragged vocals and 50 years since his debut, this is Dylan's best album in quite some time.

How can Dylan's voice matter now when it didn't all those years ago? It's ironic that some critics complain about the voice now because that's what other critics did back then. They are misguided now as they were then.

The album opens with a short Eddie Lang-like western-swing guitar shuffle mixed to sound like an old 78rpm shellac that will cue expectations among listeners to "Bob Dylan's Theme Time Radio Hour" wherein Dylan picks a theme and plays related music as in "Hi. Welcome to Theme Time Radio Hour. Today's theme is hydraulics. First we'll hear Elvis Costello with "Pump It Up" followed by Freddie Mercury and David Bowie with "Under Pressure. That will be followed by songs from dead artists you've never heard of before and will not want to hear from again...."

Ah, but I kid Bob! I love that show.

Backed by his road band of Tony Garnier on bass, George G. Riceli on soft/shuffle drums, Donnie Herron on various string instruments, Charlie Sexton and Stu Kimball on guitar plus Los Lobos's David Hidalgo on guitar, accordion and violin,Tempest covers even more musical root genres than Bob does on his radio show: swing, Chicago Blues, country, folk and Doo Wop, producing a musical melange that is always exhilarating and fresh.

Dylan the old goat, Dylan the sly fox, Dylan the alter cocker, Dylan the mischievous school kid, Dylan the admonisher, Dylan the teller of truths and the chronicler of life's tragedies and triumphs are all present. If you need proof that Dylan remains the premier story teller of the second half of the 20th Century and beyond, you will find it here, within the ragged and wrinkled confines of Dylan's blown out vocal cords.

It's not about the qualities of the voice now nor has it ever been. It's about the attitude behind the voice and despite the further limitations of age, the twinkle in his eyes can be seen in his voice.

Dylan still turns mean phrases and this album is strewn with them. For instance on the Howlin' Wolf influenced "Narrow Ways" he growls "If I can't work up to you, you'll surely have to work to me some day."

There's a song about John Lennon's assassination (the album closer, "Roll On John"), one about racism and the legacy of our slavery background and of course the title tune, an epic about The Titanic. If you thought that subject is played out, you'll change your mind after hearing Dylan's almost 15 minute telling in a waltz setting. Racism, mortality, murder, suicide, God and sex.

While this may sound grim, the album is sprinkled with humor and levity as Dylan tells his stories from a mountain top of age and experience.

Engineer Scott Litt arrays the musicians in an expansive, somewhat distant semicircle, keeping everything on the soft side. Dylan's voice is front and center and mixed well forward in the mix, the ragged edges well focused and defiant with just a taste of reverb, allowing you to revel in every tiny nuance of Dylan's delivery. This is a good thing because much of what's most effective in Dylan's phrasing is what he imparts in the near silent trail-offs. The level says "throw away" but don't be fooled. Listen in and you will be rewarded.

How this album was recorded and mixed and what resolution the source used to cut the LPs really doesn't matter. The sound is rich, warm, 3D spacious and appropriately reverberant.

The double LP set is nicely packaged with two full color glossy inner sleeves, one of which shows Dylan defiantly taking a puff from a big cigar. What a punk!

The 180g Record Industry Dutch pressing quality is outstanding. You also get the full album on CD. So between the music, the sound and the packaging this is a worthy, vital Dylan album fifty years after his debut. Amazing. Dylan showed '60s youth how to move beyond the rigidity of the 1950's and now he's showing that same generation (and younger ones too) how to move gracefully and vibrantly into old age.

If this album, if Dylan's voice doesn't move you, even on the maudlin "Roll on John" that quotes Lennon lyrics, you are putting up fierce resistance. Why bother? The Lennon song should bring you to tears.

Music Direct Buy It Now

COMMENTS
sluggobeast's picture

Got the LP last night...and now I'm even more stoked to give it a proper listen tonight!

Glotz's picture

Great review MF.  The fact that you have nothing to prove makes for such unforced, easy reading. 

And he's touring with Mark Knopfler?!?  Oh man o man.. good shiiiiit. 

 

PS- Did you get a "You fuckin rule, man!" today?

Well, there ya go.  You deserve it.

deckeda's picture

"Rattle and phlegm." Got the LaserDisc, too.

Martin's picture

Nice review, balanced. Much better than a lot of the rubbish being written. I think by people whose earliest memories of Bob were likely being filtered through amneotic fluid.

I'm looking forward to getting my copy, still on the way from Elusive Disc... 

It really is amazing that Bob is still writing, singing, producing, playing decades after most of his '60s contemporaries have run out of juice, lost that creative spark, gone to that great gig in the sky, succumbed to imbalances caused by recreational chemicals, retired, or other. That and he manages to produce an entire album of good, relevant stuff, all on his own, unlike a certain - though much loved - group who have just come out with yet another irrelevant, badly re-mastered greatest hits compilation, managing (just) to come up with two new songs as a sop to completists. Probably whipped up over a spare weekend or two in Paris. Look in the mirror boys and say slowly "Gotta stay true to yourself and your craft". Now do it without laughing.
Bob is seems, really is staying true, just doin' what he does. And on and on and on...

It's good to see the sound getting a 9, better then than "Modern Times", which is a little murky. Where O' where is that second tape master, the analogue one???? 

By the way, it was David Bowie, not Jagger with "Under Pressure".

Looking forward to a good record that I can play for fun, coloured with a gracefully aging sense of humour, a feel for irony and an understanding of human nature.

Michael Fremer's picture

Oops...I did a brain mix with Dancing in the Streets with Bowie/Jagger. It is now corrected !

bhutton13's picture

Received my copy yesterday, listened to CD at work,he still has it, will spin the Vinyl this weekend, love the inner sleeve photo.

bhutton13's picture

Received my copy yesterday, listened to CD at work,he still has it, will spin the Vinyl this weekend, love the inner sleeve photo.

Devil Doc's picture

...don't care about it now. The lyrics are the thing.

Doc

TMink's picture

Bob lost me with the Christmas album. It was painful to try to listen to. I appreciate his voice before he lost it. Since, I do not find it tolerable.

Trey

Steelhead's picture

Thought it was a great review.  I bought the vinyl of Modern Times but when I go for the bobster I am usually spinning the sacd's of blonde on blonde or J.W. Harding. 

Bought the cd yesterday as I just have to spin it even it just gets spun a couple of times and hell, less than ten bucks at Best By so bought it just to catch up with what a true musician and artist is up to.

Fun catching the review as I am currently transferring a vinyl copy of Basement Tapes to cee dee on the masterlink when I came to the website to snoop and find out what the Fremer man is up to.

thomoz's picture

I don't know if it is some undetected problem with the recording or just that the performances were less engaging but I am enjoying the new album a ton more than the last one. I don't like any of these songs as much as "Dirt Road Blues", of "Everything is Broken" or "Not Dark Yet" but it is still ridiculously listenable stuff. 

 

And for critics of his vocal abilities: when I heard "Mississippi" in 2001, I realized that the worse his voice actually sounded the more I was probably going to love it.  My take on Dylan vocals is that he's the vocal equivalent of violinist Henryk Szerzyng, with a broken violin and not a Stradivarius.

firedog55's picture

double post, sorry

firedog55's picture

Sorry, liked it then, can't listen to it now. Hey Mike - in the end, he isn't a storyteller - he's a singer. So it does matter. I just don't agree with you. Find it unpleasant to the point of unlistenable. If the songs are so great, I'll listen to cover versions.

grandtatty's picture

       Since Time out of Mind Bob has given us some great tunes every few years. His insight & ability to make us think outside the box is unmatched, not to mention the great bands that mesh it all together. Get past the voice folks, it's wouldn't be the same without it. How lucky we are to  have this icon in our world. Dig it!

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