4/5: With Modern Times, Bob Dylan releases his first album of new material in five years. The album immediately shot up to #1, and now Folk101 weighs in.
On August 29, Bob Dylan released the forty-fourth album of his storied career. His latest, Modern Times, caps a run of three stellar albums that rank among his best.
Following 1997's Time Out of Mind and 2001's Love and Theft, the new album feels like the final volume of an intricate, carefully-plotted trilogy. All these records rely heavily on the traditional blues format, Dylan's raspy, idiosyncratic voice, and of course his poetic lyrics. The combination instills the album with a crisp, unobstructed sound, and more than anything, allows the words of rock 'n' roll's bard to shine through.
The album opens with a swinging, bluesy groove called "Thunder on the Mountain." This song has received a fair amount of attention in reviews because of Dylan's irreverent mention of the well-known R+B singer, Alicia Keys. Behind the unexpected homage, however, he has written a tough, rambling piece of pure Americana. It is a track the reminds us that Dylan possesses a unique ability to appear menacing and silly at the same time, always calling into question what the listener is feeling and why.
All the tracks are long, five minutes or longer. And yet, the album never bogs down or becomes repetitive. "Spirit on the Water," for example, is a gentle, slightly poppy shuffle that exposes Dylan's romantic streak and continues the lofty, mythical tone set by album's song titles. It times in at nearly eight minutes.
The most striking feature of this album is that Dylan wades into current social and political debates. Tracks such as "Nettie Moore" and "The Levee's Gonna Break" present a stark, unflinching look at poverty and racism in today's world.
To experienced listeners, Dylan's willingness to reenter the public dialogue indicates that he has reached a new level of comfort with his ideas and how to present them. Modern Times may not contain any songs with the anthemic quality of his early work. However, it is a subtle, self-assured personal statement.
Once again, Dylan proves that there has never been a songwriter so willing to reinvent himself, and who does so with grace and a seemingly bottomless well of creativity.
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