| Product Summary | | Label: Sony | | UPC: 00828768760628 | | Release Date: 8/29/2006 | | Buy.com Sku: 202864194 | | Item#: M33RLK | | Buy.com Sales Rank: 24281 | Format:  CD |
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(C) (P) 2006 SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT
| | It's arguable that at no point since his 1960s heyday has Bob Dylan been as celebrated as in the decade following his critically acclaimed 1997 album Time Out of Mind. Numerous films, books, and albums--mostly Columbia's impressive archive series of reissues--have been part of a universal canonization of the singer and met with considerable enthusiasm by fans and critics alike. 2006's Modern Times, the third album to have been released in nearly 10 years and part of a trilogy that also includes 2001's brilliant and upbeat Love and Theft, is easily deserving of such enthusiasm and is further reason for the formal veneration.
Musically, the album finds Dylan once again mining the stately traditionalist sound first heard on Love and Theft Lazy blues numbers, piano-based songbook pop, and jumpin' country swing provide the backdrop for Dylan's continuing study of the vicissitudes of life, love, and death. Although he is certainly world-weary, a lot of life is lived in the verses of these songs and there is a dogged spirituality that provides, if not hope (a rather prosaic notion for Dylan by this point, to be sure), at least a means to finding contentment. Finally, a word about Dylan's voice here: while his singing has always been unconventional and never pretty in any traditional sense, in its raspy magnificence it is simply perfect for this timeless music.
"There is no precedent in rock & roll for the territory Dylan is now opening with albums that stand alongside the accomplishments of his wild youth. This music is relaxed; it has nothing to prove. It is music of accumulated knowledge, it knows every move, anticipates every step before you take it. Producing himself for the second time running, Dylan has captured the sound of tradition as an ever-present, a sound he's been working on since his first album, in 1962." Rolling Stone
"it radiates the observant calm of old masters who have seen enough life to be ready for anything — Yeats, Matisse, Sonny Rollins. This is a music-first record that leavens blues shuffles with the moderate tempos and politely jazzy beat favored by Dylan hero Bing Crosby in the early ’30s" Blender
| | Album Notes and Credits |
Notes & Personnel Info |  | Personnel: Bob Dylan (vocals, guitar, harmonica, piano); Denny Freeman, Stu Kimball (guitar); Donnie Herron (steel guitar, mandolin, violin, viola); Tony Garnier (cello, acoustic bass); George G. Receli (drums, percussion). | | Recording information: 2006. | | It's arguable that at no point since his 1960s heyday has Bob Dylan been as celebrated as in the decade following his critically acclaimed 1997 album TIME OUT OF MIND. Numerous films, books, and albums--mostly Columbia's impressive archive series of reissues--have been part of a universal canonization of the singer and met with considerable enthusiasm by fans and critics alike. 2006's MODERN TIMES, the third album to have been released in nearly 10 years and part of a trilogy that also includes 2001's brilliant and upbeat LOVE AND THEFT, is easily deserving of such enthusiasm and is further reason for the formal veneration. | | Musically, the album finds Dylan once again mining the stately traditionalist sound first heard on LOVE AND THEFT. Lazy blues numbers, piano-based songbook pop, and jumpin' country swing provide the backdrop for Dylan's continuing study of the vicissitudes of life, love, and death. Although he is certainly world-weary, a lot of life is lived in the verses of these songs and there is a dogged spirituality that provides, if not hope (a rather prosaic notion for Dylan by this point, to be sure), at least a means to finding contentment. Finally, a word about Dylan's voice here: while his singing has always been unconventional and never pretty in any traditional sense, in its raspy magnificence it is simply perfect for this timeless music. |
Producer: Jack Frost |
Engineer: Chris Shaw |
| | Compilation Appearances |
| | Associated Artists and Works | | Bob Dylan: The 30th Anniversary Concert... ~ Artists, Various | | Artists, Various | | The String Quartet Tribute To R.E.M. ~ Artists, Various | | Artists, Various | | Artists, Various | | A Nod To Bob ~ Artists, Various | | Artists, Various | | Artists, Various | | Artists, Various | | Four Seasons (The) | | Ladder To The Stars: Garcia Plays Dylan ~ Garcia, Jerry | | Positively 12th & K: A Bob Dylan Tribute ~ Greene, Jackie | | Highway 61 Revisited | | Hitchcock, Robyn | | Hitchcock, Robyn | | Howe, Steve | | Howe, Steve | | Positively 12 Stiff Dylans! ~ Nob Dylan & His Nobsoletes | | Red On Blonde ~ O'Brien, Tim | | Pickin' On Dylan ~ On, Pickin' | | On, Pickin' | | Original Soundtrack | | Masked and Anonymous [Limited] ~ Original Soundtrack | | Original Soundtrack | | Original Soundtrack | | Original Soundtrack | | Pickin' On Dylan ~ Pickin' On | | Bob Dylan: The 30th Anniversary Concert Celebratio ~ Various Artists | | Various Artists | | Various Artists | | Various Artists | | A Nod To Bob ~ Various Artists | | Various Artists | | Various Artists | | Various Artists | | The String Quartet Tribute To Bob Dylan ~ Various Artists | | Is It Rolling Bob? - A Reggae Tribute To Bob Dylan ~ Various Artists | | Is It Rolling Bob? - A Reggae Tribute To Bob Dylan ~ Various Artists | | Various Artists | | Listen To Bob Dylan ~ Various Artists | | Various Artists | | Various Artists | | Various Artists | | Unplugged Tribute To Bob Dylan ~ Various Artists | | Various Artists | | The String Quartet Tribute to Bob Dylan ~ Vitamin String Quartet |
| | Technical Info | | Release Date : 08/29/2006 | | Original Release Date : 2006 | | Catalog ID : 87606 | | Label : Columbia (USA) | | Number of Discs : 1 | | Studio/Live : Studio | | Mono/Stereo : Stereo | | SPAR Code : n/a | | UPC : 00828768760628 |
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| | Professional Reviews | | Rolling Stone (pp.99-100)
- 5 stars out of 5 -- "The mood is America on the brink -- of mechanization, of war, of domestic tranquility, of fulfilling its promise and of selling its dreams one by one for cash on the barrelhead....It is music of accumulated knowledge..."Rolling Stone (p.102)
- Ranked #1 in Rolling Stone's "The Top 50 Albums Of 2006" -- "MODERN TIMES is a groove album disguised as a poetry album..." Entertainment Weekly (p.75)
- "Intriguing, immediate, and quietly epic, MODERN TIMES must rank among Dylan's finest albums." Entertainment Weekly (p.130)
- Ranked #7 in Entertainment Weekly's "Top 10 Records Of 2006" -- "MODERN TIMES adds another glorious chapter to Dylan's late-career renaissance..." Q (p.126)
- Ranked #7 in Q Magazine's "100 Greatest Albums of 2006" -- "[I]t offered strident blues, wistful ragtime and shimmering ballads." Uncut (p.72)
- 5 stars out of 5 -- "[T]he emotional breadth is helped by one of Dylan's strongest singing performances....A Dylan who finally seems comfortable, and is ready to take things as far as it'll go." No Depression (pp.97-98)
- "[T]he album is both the most playfully sexual and profoundly spiritual from Dylan in decades." Mojo (Publisher)
(p.94)
- 4 stars out of 5 -- "[A] great deal of it is split between 12-bar treatises about love and lust and croonsome ballads about much the same themes, and one regularly gets the sense that its author might just be having a whale of a time." |
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