New Morning - Bob Dylan

...he was desperate for a new direction (or half a dozen at once). 'One More Weekend' is a return to the rolling bluesy style of some of the numbers from 'Blonde on Blonde', and 'The Day Of The Locusts' is said to have been written as a cynical comment on his attendance at Princeton University to be granted an honorary Doctorate of Music (which his more radical fans saw as a sell-out to the establishment), with something of his old passion, but the ...
...of Night' is hymn-like in its simplicity, anticipating the born-again Christianity which would find full flowering nine years later on 'Slow Train Coming'. 'Time Passes Slowly' and 'Winterlude' are rather slight piano-driven songs in waltz time, and the overtly religious, mainly spoken 'Three Angels' is almost sickly. As for the album's strangest track, 'If Dogs Run Free' is part jazz, part beat poetry; but it has nothing of the energy of 'Subterranean ...

JOHNV 26.07.2001 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of New Morning - Bob Dylan

for a few tracks, this album seems truly engaging. but there aren't enough decent songs on this album to recommend it with any conviction. tellingly i made an anthology of great dylan tracks for a friend of mine, and when i was recording the second 90 minute volume (67-78), i could only really put the opening track "if not for you". and to be honest, i only put it on as i was trying to show a real breadth of his music, i would've much preferred to ...
...instead, or even something from "street legal"... everything about the album is fairly anonymous, it chunters along at a sluggish pace, no lyric makes you brood for the rest of the day, no arrangement startles you, everything is simply 'bob-by-numbers'. now this is a good sounding album (apart from the f***ing awful female backing singers on some tracks) the combination of bob's bass-heavy piano, electric noodling on the guitar and organ is very ...

spoffy 27.05.2001 (15.07.2002) · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful
Review of New Morning - Bob Dylan