Sounds the horns, roll out the red carpet, bring out the bunting, kill the fatted calf, Dylan's muse is back in town. This is top stuff. After one stinker of an LP and a few others that needed the wheat separating from the chaff, Dylan returns with a vengeance. Without the slightest hint of hyperbole I can proclaim that Oh Mercy is a great album.
Hurrah!
If truth be told, listening to the last few albums has been somewhat of a sobering affair. Even where there has been good, occasionally great, material to comment on, I was plagued by the knowledge that, considering what had come before, we were dealing with sub-standard Dylan. Maybe good by others' standards but not by his. Then - blam! - in 1989, out of nowhere, he comes out with what is now one of my very favourite Dylan LPs.
The opening track - and I say this with great pleasure - is my least favourite track on the record. I like the song very much. On many of his recent albums this would be the standout track. It is a very good song. It is my least favourite on the LP. What a heartening thought.
Within seconds, it becomes clear that this is a very different album from the previous.... well, probably all of them. The sound is clear, precise.. . stripped back? Maybe not quite but there is space evident that certainly wasn't there on either the last two LPs or any from the God period. Even on the opener - Political World - one of the rare up-tempo songs on the album, the clarity yet sharpness of the production is evident. Well done Daniel Lanois. By all accounts the Dylan-Lanois relationship wasn't always the smoothest but it has served the music well.
The music. Here lies the rub. The quality of songwriting here is quite extraordinary. I'm not quite sure what caused this change - yes, I have read Chronicles and I'm still not sure - but there is now a measured certainty to his songwriting that hasn't been there since Desire; a maturity and even, perhaps, confidence. The down-tempo, unhurried melodies fit his voice perfectly.
The voice. As good as it has been for years. The overly nasal sound has gone and been replaced by a gentle rasp that serves the songs perfectly. When he gets deep down and dirty for Man In The Long Black Coat it is a performance seamlessly shaped around the mood of the song and its deep down and dirty lyrics.
Ah, the lyrics. Dylan is back on form here. Whether it is in Ring Them Bells, Most of The Time, What Good Am I? or Shooting Star, he writes with a sensitivity, a lightness of touch that we haven't heard since... well, Every Grain of Sand, probably. He also throws in some political comment in two tracks and, possibly, a reference to his religious beliefs in Shooting Star. Possibly. It is a lyrically accomplished work and one where the words are allowed to be heard. This brings us around to the production once more. Recently I read that Bill Wyman had criticised the job Daniel Lanois did here for over-producing the sound. Frankly, that is nonsense; what Lanois has done is given these beautiful songs room to breathe, to be heard. It's been a while since you could say that about a Dylan album.
Following Political World comes Where Teardrops Fall which is a pretty-enough track but, two songs in, you'd have to say that it is still just a satisfying LP rather than anything more spectacular. But then, at track three , the LP catches fire and never looks back. Every song from then on is top-notch. Everything is Broken, the other up-tempo song, just works. I'm not sure why - perhaps, lyrically, the litany style grabs you and drags you along; perhaps it is satisfying groove of the music - but, for whatever reason, it works. That is followed by the gorgeous Ring Them Bells:
Ring them bells, ye heathen
From the city that dreams
Ring them bells from the sanctuaries
’Cross the valleys and streams
For they’re deep and they’re wide
And the world’s on its side
And time is running backwards
And so is the bride.
Wonderful.
And so the LP goes on with the growling delight of Man In The Long Black Coat and then, my favourite, Most Of The Time.
It is a beautiful tune but it is really the the conceit that gets me with Most Of The Time. A post-break up song where the confession is revealed through the denial.
Most of the time
I’m clear focused all around
Most of the time
I can keep both feet on the ground
I can follow the path, I can read the signs
Stay right with it when the road unwinds
I can handle whatever I stumble upon
I don’t even notice she’s gone
Most of the time.
Following that beauty of a song we get What Good Am I?, Disease of Conceit, What Was It You Wanted and, the sublime, Shooting Star. Each is a tremendous piece of work that would have been the outstanding track on any of his LPs over the previous decade.
Have I made it clear that I like this album very much?
If there is a criticism to be levelled it would be that after Everything Is Broken the album becomes somewhat one-paced but only a complete buckethead with a heart of stone would quibble like that. This is a great LP that arrived in the nick of time. Listening to this over the last few weeks has brought a skip to my step. A delight.
Out of five?
Five.
Favourite Track?
Most Of The Time.
Up next?
Under The Red Sky.
Ah, the lyrics. Dylan is back on form here. Whether it is in Ring Them Bells, Most of The Time, What Good Am I? or Shooting Star, he writes with a sensitivity, a lightness of touch that we haven't heard since... well, Every Grain of Sand, probably. He also throws in some political comment in two tracks and, possibly, a reference to his religious beliefs in Shooting Star. Possibly. It is a lyrically accomplished work and one where the words are allowed to be heard. This brings us around to the production once more. Recently I read that Bill Wyman had criticised the job Daniel Lanois did here for over-producing the sound. Frankly, that is nonsense; what Lanois has done is given these beautiful songs room to breathe, to be heard. It's been a while since you could say that about a Dylan album.
Following Political World comes Where Teardrops Fall which is a pretty-enough track but, two songs in, you'd have to say that it is still just a satisfying LP rather than anything more spectacular. But then, at track three , the LP catches fire and never looks back. Every song from then on is top-notch. Everything is Broken, the other up-tempo song, just works. I'm not sure why - perhaps, lyrically, the litany style grabs you and drags you along; perhaps it is satisfying groove of the music - but, for whatever reason, it works. That is followed by the gorgeous Ring Them Bells:
Ring them bells, ye heathen
From the city that dreams
Ring them bells from the sanctuaries
’Cross the valleys and streams
For they’re deep and they’re wide
And the world’s on its side
And time is running backwards
And so is the bride.
Wonderful.
And so the LP goes on with the growling delight of Man In The Long Black Coat and then, my favourite, Most Of The Time.
It is a beautiful tune but it is really the the conceit that gets me with Most Of The Time. A post-break up song where the confession is revealed through the denial.
Most of the time
I’m clear focused all around
Most of the time
I can keep both feet on the ground
I can follow the path, I can read the signs
Stay right with it when the road unwinds
I can handle whatever I stumble upon
I don’t even notice she’s gone
Most of the time.
Following that beauty of a song we get What Good Am I?, Disease of Conceit, What Was It You Wanted and, the sublime, Shooting Star. Each is a tremendous piece of work that would have been the outstanding track on any of his LPs over the previous decade.
Have I made it clear that I like this album very much?
If there is a criticism to be levelled it would be that after Everything Is Broken the album becomes somewhat one-paced but only a complete buckethead with a heart of stone would quibble like that. This is a great LP that arrived in the nick of time. Listening to this over the last few weeks has brought a skip to my step. A delight.
Out of five?
Five.
Favourite Track?
Most Of The Time.
Up next?
Under The Red Sky.
No comments:
Post a Comment