No Direction Home (Bob Dylan)

dylan is one of my favorite artists of all time. he creates music that when listening at times is akin to a spiritual experience.

this album, no direction home, is the soundtrack to the documentary of the same name which was directed by martin scorsese. the documentary goes from the beginning of Robert Allen Zimmerman's (his real name) career, through to the motorcycle crash in 1966 which is seen as the major turning point in his career. the soundtrack is two discs long, with 28 tracks in all. the first album focuses on the folky side of dylan, and the second is mostly comprised of songs from the post-bringing it all back home era, when dylan had gone electric.

i am generally partial to dylan's earlier folk-oriented songs, though i cannot deny the appeal of his electric sound too. dylan is dylan, no matter what he plays.

the beauty of this soundtrack is the insight it seems to have in the evolution of dylan's sound, as well as his persona. the first track is a home recording that i believe has been dated to when dylan was about 15. you can hear the youth in his voice, but there is still an assertiveness present even then. through the next couple songs you hear the influences of woody guthrie, culminating in "song to woody," which is possibly my favorite track on the first disc:

"hey hey woody guthrie, i wrote you a song. / about a funny ol' world that's a-comin' along. / seems sick and it's hungry and it's tired and it's torn. / it looks like it's a-dying and it's hardly been born."

here, have a listen.

Bob Dylan – Song to Woody


there are also several alternate and live versions of "blowin' in the wind" as well as folk classics like "this land is your land" and "man of constant sorrow." all are excellent in their own right. stand-out tracks are "i was young when i left home" and "a hard rain's gonna fall." this album is dylan, front and center.

the second album begins with an alternate take of "she belongs to me," and suddenly there is bass, rhythm and lead guitar. the shift to this new sound is jarring, and i can only imagine what it was like back when all this was going down and people were boo'ing him and worse. it's different, sure, but it's brilliant. the songwriting and lyricism is still there, but the tempo has sped up to keep pace with his ideas. the alternate takes and live versions on the second disc are just as well-chosen as those on the first disc. "desolation row," and "tombstone blues" are stellar.

the magic, though, is in the energy from the organ player and dylan's vocals in this live cut of "ballad of a thin man." please listen.

Bob Dylan – Ballad of a Thin Man (Live version)


no direction home excels as a documentary and a soundtrack. to some, this 2-disc set would be a little too much dylan. and i can understand how some people can only take so much. nonetheless, this is a stellar collection and a wonderful way to begin exploring the dylan discography.

and the documentary could not be recommended enough. below is a great scene i had found posted on youtube of dylan just playing with language:

No Review Today

today is my wife's birthday. well, at least for another 5 minutes. i elected to spend time w/ her instead of my ipod. i think i made the right decision. emily, i love you.

Sufjan Stevens – Happy Birthday

Back to Black Rating Breakdown

this will not be done on all posts. however, to demonstrate how i will be reaching my rating, i shall illustrate:

"rehab" 5 stars
"i'm no good" 4 stars
"me & mr. jones" 5 stars
"just friends" 3 stars
"back to black" 4 stars
"love is a losing game" 3 stars
"tears dry..." 5 stars
"wake up alone" 3 stars
"some unholy war" 2 stars
"he can only hold her" 3 stars
"i'm no good [remix]" 5 stars

total amount of stars: 42.

total number of tracks: 11

42 / 11 = 3.81

3.81 x 2 = 7.63

this was then rounded to: 7.6 / 10. bokay?

Back To Black (Amy Winehouse)

amy winehouse has been in the news lately, for (ironically) going to rehab and also cancelling her U.S. tour. and very recently, for an incident involving her husband.

she's a stormy, fickle character who's prone to extremes. her music on this album also seems to capture that. you can hear and feel that she has troubles, and this petite little english 20-something sings with an amazing amount of soul.

the album starts out strong with "rehab." by now, everyone knows this song. and by now, most people know she shouldn't be saying "no, no, no." the following two songs, "you know i'm no good" and "me & mr. jones" are all stellar. the songs convey a sense of regret and jelousy.

"just friends" does not impress me as much. the vocals do not seem to match the music.

the title song "back to black" is good. the image of being a man's second woman, being painfully aware of it, and surviving is compelling.

"love is a losing game" is my least favorite song of the album. on it, winehouse tries to sing softly, which is something she should never do. her voice is powerful, and filled with soul, however, it is lacking in softness. she should sing nothing quieter than forte. it's strange, but her trying to be quiet sounds more forced than many artists who try to be louder than they really are.

thankfully, the album bounces back quickly with "tears dry on their own." the tempo, rhythm, melody and chorus all work together nicely. it truly conveys the feeling of someone walking away. one can easily imagine someone storming from a flat and out into an endless city.

"wake up alone" is alright. i don't really have much to say on this one. i can take it or leave it. it doesn't stand out from any of the other songs.

"some unholy war" i just don't like. the vocal tricks are nice and all, the background vocals are good too, but it's just shrug-worthy.

"he can only hold her" has the feeling of a final song. it tops the album off nicely.

then there's a remix of "you know i'm no good." this is good too.

overall, this is a very good album that has served to update soul in an interesting way and has brought some good music to the mainstream. amy winehouse's tabloid antics are somewhat tiresome, but for the most part her album is not. it is easy to find yourself listening to this album over an over, which is always a sign of good work.

rating: 7.6/10

oh, i almost forgot. i saw amy winehouse in concert last month at lollapalooza. her are couple photos (i have others on flickr):

new rating system

in future posts, i will be rolling out a new rating system. at the end of every review each album will be given a rating out of 10.

the rating will be reached by an calculating an average. i will rate each song individually in itunes, which allows for songs to be rated between 0-5 stars. half-stars are not allotted by the software, and i have no need for them. i'm not not that indecisive. the ratings of each song will be added, then divided by the number of songs on the album. this number will then be multiplied by 2 to reach a factor of 10. voila. a rating is born.

new reviews coming soon!

Special Edition: 90's Music Retrospective

musically speaking, the 90's kinda sucked. (i'm referring specifically to popular music.) especially when you look at the decades that preceded the 90's.

the 40's and 50's had the rat pack, billie holliday, all manner of jazz and blues greats, and elvis. things were nascent. there was a sense of novelty to the decade, and a quiet sense of rebellion among youth.

in the 60's, the rebellion became outright. there was free love, hippiedom, and rock and roll. musically, they had the beatles, the doors, jimi hendrix, bob dylan, the band, the who, the kinks, the monkees, the mama's and the papa's, and on and on.

the 70's had funk, disco, and metal. disco was hopelessly decadent, and funk was experimental. metal was angry.

the 80's were interesting. postmodernism was just setting in. computers were invading popular culture. in music you had the smiths, the pixies, hair metal, peter gabriel, talking heads, r.e.m., phil collins, echo and the bunnymen, and MTV when they actually played music videos. i never really like 80's music until recently, but looking back the era did have some very good bands and artists.

and then there's the 90's.

when it comes to popular music, the 90's pale in comparison to every other decade. when you look at the popular bands from the 90's, there are about 4 greats: nirvana, pearl jam, smashing pumpkins, and radiohead. these are the artists that are emblematic of the 90's. nirvana and kurt cobain are credited for saving the world from endless hair metal with "smells like teen spirit." with nirvana, "alternative music" became mainstream. pearl jam was right there with them.

other bands came around, like soundgarden. sonic youth. but none of them really reached the pinnacle that cobain's or vedder's or corgan's bands got to. and to the detriment of the alternative music genre, no alt. band ever surpassed what these bands did musically or lyrically and achieved such commercial success. the airwaves were filled with copycats, with every bandleader sounding like vedder or playing like cobain or vice versa.

i understand the importance of nirvana, pearl jam, and the smashing pumpkins has to a lot of fans. and many people likely know their music much better than i do. but i don't think anyone can refute the fact that no other alt. bands have ever come close to making music as good as these original bands did and have had as large an impact on the culture in general as these bands have.

radiohead is an exception. their sound in and of itself has evolved, and they stood out from the crowd. i don't really know how to specifically work them into this current line of thought, though.

but the disappointment of the alt. genre is only half the story of the 90's. the other half is even worse: boy bands, britney spears. throw up.

boy bands were cultural fads and corporate hacks. their pretty voices were only secondary to their pretty faces, which were the main impulse for all their pre-pubescent fans. they were all the negative aspects of consumerism incarnate: shallow, petty, cheap, and discardable.

and britney spears has and always will be a little bit loopy. worse things have been and could be said. but that's for somebody else.

personally, i'm quite disappointed that my generation did not have a band or sound that we could rally behind and march as one to. or heck, not to be so philosophical about it: that we could all listen or dance to together. when "smells like teen spirit" came out, i was 9. i kinda missed that moment in rock history by a bit. by the time i could appreciate music, it sucked, and i listened to christian music and dave matthews band instead. when compared to the other eras, the selection of great popular music that would be destined to become timeless was pretty slim.

a case could be made to the redeem the 90's. in fact, if someone could make one, i'd love to hear it. were there any bands i overlooked or was there anything i got wrong? or was i hopelessly spot-on? gosh, i hope not.

American Pie & Other Hits (Don McLean)

it's been a while. but that doesn't mean i can't revive this blog and the intention for which is started it! if you want to know the main reason for the long delay, please refer to my post for today on my main blog, here.

don mclean makes perennial music. he makes a type of music that can be listened to whenever a mellow, thoughtful singer-songwriter is called for. it's the kind of music that can be played in the background when you have friends or family over, and if there's a lull in conversation, no one seems to mind. his music is easily the topic of conversation.

his style of music is such that you don't feel like he should be performing on a stage in front of you, but on a chair or stool next to you. it's intimate. it's right in your ear.

i'll admit that i am not all to familiar w/ his music. my wife is. in fact, this is her album i'm reviewing.

the album starts off w/ a truncated version of "american pie." this is the kind of song i typically don't comment about, b/c there is so little new to say about it, and the nature of this blog at this point is more off-the-cuff than reflective. it's followed by "and i love you so," and "babylon," which is the best audience-participation-sing-a-long song i've ever heard. "starry starry night" or "vincent" is one of my wife's favorite songs.

a singular criticism: the album order stacks all his most well-known hits at the beginning, making it feel almost top-heavy. the rest of the album suffers b/c of that choice.

good stuff, though.