Modern Times

Enough has been written about Bob Dylan that I’m not going to bore you with many details other than to say he’s probably the greatest songwriter who ever lived.  Ok, perhaps that is an overstatement, but he certainly has left an indelible mark on modern music, particularly in folk music and rock music.  In the last 10 years he has released four studio albums, which seems low considering his career output is close to an album per year.  But really, what do you expect from someone who was 60 in 2001 when he released “Love and Theft”?

Modern Times continues the modern renaissance of his music, which really began with Time Out of Mind in 1997 and more recently includes Christmas in the Heart.  The modern Bob Dylan is still quite the storyteller, though his song styles have drifted more towards country blues than the traditional folk he is most famous for.  Modern Times was another heralded album and is my subject for today.

#31 – Bob Dylan, Modern Times (Metascore = 89)

While Modern Times was critically applauded upon its release, it has had its share of controversy.  While certain critics still praised his lyrics and songs, a few questioned him as to whether he borrowed lines from other artists’ songs in his own songs and taking credit for the words.  One DJ in New Mexico even claimed that Dylan took lines from the works of Henry Timrod, a Civil War poet.  Dylan has defended his position much the same way other folk artists have, in that he may have stolen some lines here and there but he reworked them in his own words to compliment what he wrote.

His voice is stronger and less gravelly here than I have heard on other records.  His band is also in fine form.  At times this record has a jazzy edge where Dylan has a plaintive voice (“Spirit on the Water”).  At other times it has that old man blues feel (“Someday Baby” or “Rollin’ and Tumblin’”).  There’s Hank Williams, Sr. country sadness in “When the Deal Goes Down”.  For me, I thought the guitar lines by Stu Kimball and Denny Freeman were just beautiful throughout because they were so simple yet so powerful.

A drawback I get in listening to this album is how traditional it sounds.  Unlike Time Out of Mind or the single “Things Have Changed” (one of my favorite songs of his) from the movie The Wonder Boys, which had originality and depth to them, the tracks from Modern Times feel familiar, as if I had heard them all my life in some form or another.  This seems too safe for Dylan, the same man who in his early days was writing protest songs left and right against the establishment, then openly discussed not playing songs the same way when performing live.  “Rollin’ and Tumblin’” is one of the biggest examples of this.  Blues artists the world around have covered this song, even if Dylan modified the lyrics.

Despite this drawback, this album has a playfulness to it that will keep listeners listening.  I love classic blues regardless of how it’s performed, whether it’s Eric Clapton going off on some Robert Johnson riff or it’s Bob Dylan growling back to you in “Someday Baby”.  Dylan is still writing stories about current events, too.  In “Workingman’s Blues #2” he writes on topics such as the sting of lower wages for the blue collar workingman and the advance of urban sprawl on places he used to love.

With all of this in mind, I would knock this record down just a little.  89 is a high Metascore for an album that seems too safe for Dylan.  This is an enjoyable record no doubt, but it’s lacking that originality that made Time Out of Mind and “Love and Theft” interesting records.