Sunday, September 30, 2012

Down on the Killin' Floors: Bob Dylan's "Tempest"



 "These are the same people that tried to pin the name Judas on me. Judas, the most hated name in human history! If you think you've been called a bad name, try to work your way out from under that. Yeah, and for what? For playing an electric guitar? As if that is in some kind of way equitable to betraying our Lord and delivering him up to be crucified. All those evil motherfuckers can rot in hell."
                                                                                  - interview with Mikal Gilmore
                                                                                     Rolling Stone, Sept. 27th, 2012

 
        "I'm tryin' to love my neighbor and do unto others, But, oh mother, things ain't goin' well", Bob Dylan intones on "Ain't Talkin'", the last song on 2006's Modern Times. It's a float through some deserted landscape, and Dylan seems resolute to shun humanity and all it's wickedness, and just. keep. walkin'. Yet, later in the song, he says, almost whispers "If I catch my opponents ever sleepin', I'll just slaughter them where they lie".
         Dylan's been in renaissance-mode since 1997's Time Out of Mind, a stark meditation on love, regret, and mortality seemingly made by a man at his wits end with the rat race of life. On 2001's Love and Theft he began producing himself and employing in the studio his live band well versed in Western swing, Dixieland jazz, and rockabilly. He introduced a lyrical thread filled with wicked fire-and-brimstone judgement against wrong-doers and sneering kiss-offs to former lovers that felt both caustic and comedic.  How about "I'm gonna baptize you in fire so you can sin no more, I'm gonna establish my rule through civil war" or "I'm preachin' the word of God, I'm puttin' out your eyes!"?
        Things still ain't going well on Dylan's new album ,Tempest, an absolute stunner of a record that feels like the proper follow up to Modern Times. ( 2009's Together Through Life seemed weak and out-of-place, but in retrospect, a stop-gap detour). The same themes are present, but Dylan really ups the intensity. His voice is as ragged and damaged as ever. "Duquesne Whistle" begins the record innocently, maybe the sweetest thing on here, but, after that, things get brutal really quick. "This is hard country to stay alive in, Blades are everywhere, and they're breakin' my skin, I'm armed to the hilt, and I'm strugglin' hard, You won't get out of here, unscarred" he belts out on "Narrow Way", over a white-hot, honky tonk rhythm. Time seems skewed in the modern Dylan universe; Biblical worlds bump up against the present. He's a judge and the judged in an impending apocalypse, a hangman and the hanged in the post-apocalypse. Those threats keep coming! Over the standard-stop-start blues beat (think "Hoochie Coochie Man") of "Early Roman Kings", Dylan spits "I can strip you of life, strip you of breath, Ship you down to the house of death". "Pay in Blood" contains more savagery per line than any Dylan song ever, too many to mention. At his most bile-throated yet, he practically barks the recurring line "I pay in blood, but not my own". Even the mellow waltz of "Soon After Midnight" hides treachery:"Two-timing slim, who's ever heard of him, I'll drag his corpse through the mud". On "Long and Wasted Years", the most Dylan can muster is smug admonishment to a woman of his past. The way he belts out "Oh baby, you just might have to go to jail someday" makes me chuckle.
        There are two wild cards on Tempest. The last track, "Roll On John", about the slain former Beatle might seem out of place. But it's a nice respite from the blood-spilling that preceeds the record, a possible lament to or plea for a purity that was lost. The title track is a 14 minute, 40-odd verse rumination on the sinking of the Titanic. Critics have made such a big deal about the fact that it's not historically accurate. Fact, fiction, myths, even movie characters all fall into the sea. It's basically Dylan's version of a traditional tragedy song. It is grueling, and indulgent, yet not unlistenable.
       So, what does all of this mean? Sure, the violence is probably the most noticeable and jarring thing on the record, but it's shrouded in what seems like revolution. There's a brilliant thinly-veiled topical line in "Early Roman Kings: "I was up on black mountain, the day Detroit fell, they killed 'em all off, and they sent 'em to hell, Ding dong daddy, You're comin up short, Gonna put you on trial in a Sicilian court; and "Pay in Blood": "I'll give you justice, I'll fatten your purse, Show me the moral that you reversed". Yet, I don't think this is a protest record, nor do I think it's a religious record, although both themes are prevalent. I've never been one to over-analyze Dylan. I'm ok with it being simply about not taking shit from anyone! .I still can't help but wonder if some of it is playfully directed at his detractors. There's very few artists that have caused as much public/critical scrutiny and hostility. Perhaps, after 50 years, Dylan is finally getting his vengeance. A "pen is mightier than the sword" sort-of thing, maybe? But it's done with humor, even if it's pitch black.
       . Dylan has made yet another uncompromising  masterpiece! At 71 years of age, the man refuses to become a nostalgia act. Let's cherish that! ****1/2
       
      

       
      
     
    

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

The Avett Brothers "The Carpenter"

     

      It's been awhile since I've had such an ambivalent reaction to a new record. Sometimes I think about music too much and that can be a blessing and a curse. In this case, probably the latter. I just can't absorb music in any surface way, especially when it comes to the Avett Brothers. I've got to stay true to myself and give an honest perception. I'm not going to hype music as commodity. I can't and  won't do that.
       I came to the Avett Brothers late. I'm talking within the past year or so. They'd been on my radar for years. I had read many articles/reviews, even half-assed listened to them a few times. But I just wasn't truly ready for them until an enthusiastic fan gave me the download code to his vinyl copy of Emotionalism, released in 2007. It was then that I surrendered and I grew to love that record, even more so the follow up, 2009's I & Love & You.
      You can call their music country, folk, Americana, etc, but I think all of those labels are merely incidental, at least to their sound these days. It describes more the instrumentation than their style of music. I would say the Avetts are foremost a pop band who write love songs, primarily. Yet, it's what they do with those songs that absolutely astounds me, imbuing them with a vulnerability unheard in anything. Lyrically, it's as if they're transcribing an internal dialogue that most people never verbalize. They embrace the totality of life..and death...and the bitter-sweetness of it all. Themes of lonleliness, heartbreak, paranoia all emerge within their songs but not in a morbid way. It's life-affirming. The Avetts are brave souls. The whole thing could just fall into complete sentimental drivel at any moment, yet they still walk the line of brilliance. I've got to admit that there are times when I listen to them that I feel that, as vast as my musical tastes are, I'm venturing into uncharted territory. But, in an age saturated with irony, it's very refreshing to hear something earnest that doesn't feel contrived. It's not something that I can casually listen to any old time, but when I'm in the mood, it's all I want to listen to.
      That being said, I've gone to hell and back with The Carpenter. Most of the way through the first listen, I thought it was good, not mind-blowing, but would probably grow on me over time. Then, on the second listen, I thought they were just going through the (e)motions. My impression now, after a week of listening, falls somewhere in between
     "The Once and Future Carpenter" is a warm opening track, like an old friend who's returned after a long absence. That line "if I live the life I'm given, I won't be scared to die" comes to the forefront. "Live and Die" is catchy, but more style over substance. With "Winter in My Heart" the music takes a somber, yet more exciting turn.  There's plenty of great lines in almost every song; "Febuary Seven" ("And as the last of breath was drawn from me/ the light broke in and brought me to my feet"; "Down with the Shine" ("Things change and get strange with the movement of time/ It's happening , right now, to you"); and "Life"( "Wouldn't it be fine to stand behind the words we say in the best of times?")  "Through My Prayers" is the real tearjerker on the record and I'll admit I got misty-eyed. Yet, I feel conflicted about it. Part of me thinks it's great, but then it feels at times like Avetts-by-numbers. 
     The one truly abhorrent song is "Paul Newman vs. the Demons". First of all,  The Avetts have been known to "rock" occasionally. Sometimes that contrast has been awesome and much-needed. But this track was just horribly abysmal and actually made me hostile. It would fit seamlessly in rotation between Seether and Three Days Grace on any modern rock station.. But if you're a fan on those bands, or specifically Incubus, then I'll shut up.
    I think my main problem with this album is that the actual music just isn't that interesting to me. I miss the drawn-out, high drama of I & Love & You, where the songs sort of dipped and peaked. I wouldn't say they stripped their sound down, or went backwards. It's like they dulled down the edges. It sounds kind of flat. And for every great lyric line there seems to be a whole lot of word-filler.
   . I'm sure a lot of people will disagree with me. Maybe I expected too much. Maybe asking for nothing short of brilliance from the Avetts is unrealistic. Compared to their last two (or 3 or 4) records, a merely good Avetts record feels mediocre. Whatever it is, I think I need to get some distance from The Carpenter for awhile, let it marinate some, then come back to it. Right now, on a scale of 1 to 5, I'll give it a 3. Maybe it will grow on me. I'd like to revisit this record later on in some forum, perhaps at the end of the year, and let you know if my opinion has changed. Meanwhile I'll continue to listen to it when the mood is right. Autumn is slowly unveiling itself, and the Avett Brothers are appropriate for that season.