dan340
06/07/09, 05:45 AM
Bob Dylan - Love and Theft
Record Label: Columbia
Release Date: September 11, 2001
It's difficult to convert admiration (or otherwise) of a record into words; a task made even harder when that record happens to be your all-time favourite: Love and Theft is this for me. Nonetheless, I'll try my best.
Love and Theft is an album of great variety. If not musically, lyrically. It shifts between deep, thought provoking phrases: "Well, my ship's been split to splinters and it's sinking fast/ I'm drowning in the poison, got no future, got no past." "... Now the emptiness is endless, cold as the clay/ You can always come back, but you can't come back all the way." to straight up-and-down blues lyrics: "I don't carry dead weight, I'm no flash in the pan/ All right, I'll set you straight, can't you see I'm a union man?"
I must confess that I invariably skip the first track, "Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum". It just doesn't 'do it' the same way the rest of the tracks do. However, "Mississippi," track two, is simply amazing. It is a laid-back, nostalgic and contemplative song that puts a smile on your face at the same time. This is the song that, by most accounts, makes the album. Since it appears so early, it's a hard act to follow. The next tracks, thankfully, do follow this act and put up an amazing fight.
We then have "Summer Days," a steady rocker that perhaps takes itself too seriously but is still good. Then, Dylan show his playful side on "Bye & Bye," a side that reappears on "Floater (Too Much To Ask.)" "Floater" is a great track. Dylan creates vivid imagery that makes me think of fisherman relaxing by swamps and everything that's pure, simple and nice. "Bye & Bye" is also a standout, featuring that classic line: "I'm sitting on my watch, so I can be on time..." I just love that. Dylan does this again in "Po' Boy," - classic Dylan, in my book. Sure, part of the lyrics are a knock-knock joke, but he's 'the man' - it doesn't matter.
Without putting too fine of a point on it, the songwriting here is really impressive: funny, sad and everything in between. Charlie Sexton and Larry Campbell's guitar really adds to the songs, subtly, not overtly or harshly. In "Floater," the guitars bubble up like a water cooler tank, and in "Cry A While" they boil over, leaving a bluesy, hot mess. Dylan's voice, while it annoys some, suits the songs very well; albeit barely sung and mostly growled. Finally, make sure to give it more than one listen if you do get this album. Don't write it off after one listen like I nearly did. Give it a chance, it'll give back to you.
Blues; Rock; 'Modern Times;' Tom Waits; Anything Good
Myspace: www.myspace.com/bobdylan (http://www.myspace.com/bobdylan)
Official: www.bobdylan.com
(http://www.bobdylan.com)
(http://www.bobdylan.com)
Record Label: Columbia
Release Date: September 11, 2001
It's difficult to convert admiration (or otherwise) of a record into words; a task made even harder when that record happens to be your all-time favourite: Love and Theft is this for me. Nonetheless, I'll try my best.
Love and Theft is an album of great variety. If not musically, lyrically. It shifts between deep, thought provoking phrases: "Well, my ship's been split to splinters and it's sinking fast/ I'm drowning in the poison, got no future, got no past." "... Now the emptiness is endless, cold as the clay/ You can always come back, but you can't come back all the way." to straight up-and-down blues lyrics: "I don't carry dead weight, I'm no flash in the pan/ All right, I'll set you straight, can't you see I'm a union man?"
I must confess that I invariably skip the first track, "Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum". It just doesn't 'do it' the same way the rest of the tracks do. However, "Mississippi," track two, is simply amazing. It is a laid-back, nostalgic and contemplative song that puts a smile on your face at the same time. This is the song that, by most accounts, makes the album. Since it appears so early, it's a hard act to follow. The next tracks, thankfully, do follow this act and put up an amazing fight.
We then have "Summer Days," a steady rocker that perhaps takes itself too seriously but is still good. Then, Dylan show his playful side on "Bye & Bye," a side that reappears on "Floater (Too Much To Ask.)" "Floater" is a great track. Dylan creates vivid imagery that makes me think of fisherman relaxing by swamps and everything that's pure, simple and nice. "Bye & Bye" is also a standout, featuring that classic line: "I'm sitting on my watch, so I can be on time..." I just love that. Dylan does this again in "Po' Boy," - classic Dylan, in my book. Sure, part of the lyrics are a knock-knock joke, but he's 'the man' - it doesn't matter.
Without putting too fine of a point on it, the songwriting here is really impressive: funny, sad and everything in between. Charlie Sexton and Larry Campbell's guitar really adds to the songs, subtly, not overtly or harshly. In "Floater," the guitars bubble up like a water cooler tank, and in "Cry A While" they boil over, leaving a bluesy, hot mess. Dylan's voice, while it annoys some, suits the songs very well; albeit barely sung and mostly growled. Finally, make sure to give it more than one listen if you do get this album. Don't write it off after one listen like I nearly did. Give it a chance, it'll give back to you.
Blues; Rock; 'Modern Times;' Tom Waits; Anything Good
Myspace: www.myspace.com/bobdylan (http://www.myspace.com/bobdylan)
Official: www.bobdylan.com
(http://www.bobdylan.com)
(http://www.bobdylan.com)