Modern Times (Bob Dylan album)

Untitled

Modern Times is the thirty-first studio album by Bob Dylan, released on August 28 2006 by Sony BMG. It is his third consecutive album to be met with widespread critical and fan acclaim. While it has been marketed as the third in a conceptual trilogy, beginning in 1997 with Time Out of Mind, Dylan himself has rebuffed that notion; in a recent interview with Rolling Stone magazine, he stated that he "would think more of "Love and Theft" as the beginning of a trilogy, if there's going to be a trilogy."

The album was released in both standard and special edition formats, with the special edition including a bonus DVD. It became Dylan's first #1 album in the US since 1976's Desire, thus making Dylan the oldest living person ever to have an album enter the Billboard charts at number one. Modern Times sold 192,000 copies in its first week of release in the States. It also reached #1 in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Denmark, Norway and Switzerland, debuted #2 in Germany, Austria and Sweden. It has reached #3 (so far) in the UK and The Netherlands. The album has been TV advertised (a rarity for a non-compilation Dylan album) in the UK in conjunction with iTunes.

Band and Production

The album was recorded with Dylan's current touring band, including bassist Tony Garnier, drummer George G Receli, guitarists Mike Hansen, Stu Kimball and Denny Freeman, plus multi-instrumentalist Donnie Herron. Dylan produced the effort under the name "Jack Frost."

Early rehearsals were held in late January and early February 2006 at the Bardavon 1869 Opera House in Poughkeepsie, New York. Days after the rehearsals, recording sessions were held in a Manhattan recording studio where the album was taped in roughly three weeks.

Anticipation

Dylan's historical stature, as well as his renewed critical acclaim following Time Out of Mind (1997) and "Love and Theft" (2001), helped to make Modern Times a highly anticipated release. As with Theft in 2001, Sony held a listening event for critics far in advance. At the same time, however, those invited were forbidden from disclosing details or opinions about what they heard.

Modern Times was leaked online through various BitTorrent websites on August 21 2006, and the album was first released in some European countries (including Germany and Ireland) on August 25, in the UK on August 28 and premiered in the US on August 28 on XM Satellite Radio, a satellite radio service which already broadcasts a radio program hosted by Dylan.

Critical Reaction

Hailed By Some as a "Masterwork"

In the month leading up to the album's release, official reviews began to surface. Rolling Stone and UNCUT both crowned it with five-stars, the highest rating given by both magazines. In Rolling Stone, critic Joe Levy called the record Dylan's "third straight masterwork." Critic Robert Christgau also wrote a positive review in Blender, describing it as "startling [and radiating] the observant calm of old masters who have seen enough life to be ready for anything -- Yeats, Matisse, Sonny Rollins."

Jody Rosen of the online magazine Slate concurred, calling Modern Times "a better album than Time Out of Mind and even than the majestic Love and Theft, which by my lights makes it Dylan's finest since Blood on the Tracks."

Some Mixed

Alexis Petridis of The Guardian was the first major critic to ridicule the hype - which he called a "competition to see who can slather Bob Dylan's 32nd studio album with the most deranged praise known to man." He went on to call the record "unassuming" and "not one of those infrequent, unequivocally fantastic Dylan albums".

"Modern Times sounds more tentative than either of its predecessors," wrote Jon Pareles for The New York Times, noting that "onstage Mr. Dylan’s touring band regularly supercharges his songs. But on Modern Times the musicians play as if they’re just feeling their way into the tunes." Greg Kot of The Chicago Tribune echoed these sentiments, writing that "too often the band sounds as if it were learning the songs as it was recording them, and it tiptoes around them. The galvanizing surges of Dylan's stage shows are missing." Despite these criticisms, both Pareles and Kot were still supportive of Modern Times in their reviews.

Jim DeRogatis of The Chicago Sun-Times appreciated the lyrical content but found fault in the languid music. DeRogatis was particularly critical of the ballads, writing that "with the exception of the closing track 'Ain't Talkin',' one of the spookiest songs he's ever written, Dylan disappoints with...[his] inexplicable fondness for smarmy '30s and '40s balladry."

Overall

The majority of reviews have been highly positive. According to Metacritic, a site that tracks prominent critical opinion, Modern Times' approval rating hovers around 89%.

Songwriting credits

Music

File:DylanCredits.jpg

Songwriting credits on CD

Some versions of the album state "All songs written by Bob Dylan" which has stirred some debate. Other versions of the album, such as "The Limited Edition" do not credit Dylan in this manner. The song most in question is "Rollin' and Tumblin'", an old blues song thought to have been authored by Hambone Willie Newbern. A version musically identical to Dylan's was recorded by Muddy Waters. While the version on Modern Times contains original lyrics, some rock critics, such as Jim Fusilli of the Wall Street Journal, have found the lack of citation troubling. Joe Levy of Rolling Stone claimed to have brought the issue up with Sony BMG, who shrugged it off as a non-issue. Levy himself has defended the move as part of a longstanding blues tradition of evolving songs, in which credit was rarely an issue.

In addition, three of the other songs take their choruses from other old blues songs; "Someday Baby" (see "Trouble No More" by Muddy Waters), "The Levee's Gonna Break" (see "When the Levee Breaks" by Kansas Joe McCoy and Memphis Minnie) and "Ain't Talkin'" (see "Highway of Regret" by the Stanley Brothers), but have completely rewritten verses. The music of "When the Deal Goes Down" bases on the melody of "When The Blue Of The Night Meets The Gold Of The Day" that became a signature-song for Bing Crosby.

"Beyond the Horizon" may bear a strong similarity to "Red Sails in the Sunset," a hit in the 1950s for The Platters.

The title of the album is the same as one of Charlie Chaplin's most noted films, Modern Times, .

Controversy

In September 2006 an article for The New York Times noted similarities between Bob Dylan's lyrics in the album, Modern Times and the poetry of Henry Timrod. A wider debate developed in The Times as to the nature of "borrowing" within the folk tradition and in literature , , .

Track listing

1. "Thunder on the Mountain" – 5:55
2. "Spirit on the Water" – 7:42
3. "Rollin' and Tumblin'" – 6:01
4. "When the Deal Goes Down" – 5:04
5. "Someday Baby" – 4:55
6. "Workingman's Blues #2" – 6:07
7. "Beyond the Horizon" – 5:36
8. "Nettie Moore" – 6:52
9. "The Levee's Gonna Break" – 5:43
10. "Ain't Talkin'" – 8:48

Artwork

The cover photo "Taxi, New York at Night", 1947, is by Ted Croner and has been already used as a cover by the defunct band Luna for their EP album "Hedgehog/23 Minutes in Brussels".