Opinz

Bob Dylan – Together Through Life

Bob Dylan can, at this point, churn albums out in his sleep…and Together Through Life sounds like he’s done just that – there is nothing compelling or provoking about the latest from a guy who has shaped pop and rock music with his lyrics and themes; it’s just tired old blues derivitives and filler he’s been producing for the last 10 years which all sound like they are not much more than cover versions of this own work – this is not your parents’ Bob Dylan, folks.
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Tags: bob dylan, columbia, jack frost

Various Artists – War Child Presents Heroes

War Child’s newest compilation – benefiting children affected by war – is structured around a premise that legendary artists pick modern day artists to cover their classics: Beck does a rousing, bluesy rendition of Bob Dylan’s “Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat”, Lily Allen does a soft and ironically sweet cover of The Clash’s “Paper Planes”-sampled “Straight to Hell”,  Hot Chip dance-pops up Joy Division’s “Transmission, and TV on the Radio manages to make the first good cover of Bowie’s “Heroes” that this reviewer has ever heard; despite a few low points, (The Kinks clearly picked The Kooks to cover “Victoria” because of the similar names, and the results are quite boring, and Peaches’ can’t hold a candle to the badassness of Iggy Pop’s “Search and Destroy”) the whole thing paints a more promising portrait of the state of popular music then you’re likely to get from most sources and besides, once again, it’s all for a good cause so you should buy it anyway.

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Tags: adam cohen, beck, blondie, bob dylan, brian wilson, bruce springsteen, compilations, david bowie, duffy, elbow, elvis costello, estelle, franz ferdinand, hot chip, iggy pop, joy division, leonard cohen, lily allen, paul mccartney, peaches, roxy music, rufus wainwright, scissor sisters, stevie wonder, the clash, the hold steady, the kinks, the kooks, the like, the ramones, the stooges, tv on the radio, u2, war child, yeah yeah yeahs

Bob Dylan – Blood on the Tracks

Bob Dylan – Blood on the Tracks

January 17, 1975
Columbia
Rating: 5 / 5

The Music Rag One Sentence Review: This is Bob Dylan taking off those big sunglasses and showing the world who he really is, resulting in one of the most tragic, powerful, sweet, occasionally even pathetic, but enduringly, touchingly, and unflinchingly human albums ever produced.

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Tags: blood on the tracks, bob dylan