Tell your ma and tell your pa: the musical voice of their generation has undeniably gotten his steam back with his 31st disc, Modern Times. This disc features the same Bob Dylan whom your parents knew; you can sense it in nearly every line from the legend's mouth. But it is also a completely different Dylan in other ways that let other generations latch on as well. Modern Times conjures up images of an aging figure brooding over his keyboard rather than a young go-getter with a guitar on his shoulder and a harmonica around his neck.
Since the release of Time Out of Mind in 1997, Dylan has been recording albums that are making people notice him again. With a 20-year dry spell lasting since the late 1970s, people tend to linger on the old rather than be disappointed by the new.
These days, Dylan's voice sounds as if it was thrown in a cement mixer for a few weeks but is still uniquely Dylan. The peculiar factor is Dylan's backing band. The band, which he has been touring with for a while, is near perfect on every song. The grit in Dylan's voice and the precision of the band make for a great juxtaposition that helps the album shine over other Dylan albums done in recent years.
Dylan struts down familiar paths on this album with his signature cryptic style. On the opening track Thunder On the Mountain
Dylan sings the opening lines: Thunder on the mountain and there's fires on the moon / A ruckus in the alley and the sun will be here soon / Today's the day gonna grab my trombone and blow / Well
there's hot stuff here
and it's everywhere I go.
But the comfortable blanket that is this style also leads to the one major disappointment of the album. On Workingman's Blues #2
Dylan sings, Well
the place I love best is a sweet memory / It's a new path that we trod. The lyric alludes to the majesty of Dylan's back catalogue but also promises new material that simply is not delivered.
But at this point in Dylan's career, do we really need an older trendsetter? Think about how many prolific songwriters from the 1960s are still around and releasing good music. Bob Dylan is a rare treasure in these, our modern times.
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Chris Yonker
