The Album Review Club - Week #147 - (page 1942) - Blonde On Blonde - Bob Dylan

[BlueHammer85]

 

[threespires]

I'm going to have to go with a one of those, not for me but I recognise qualities 5s.

I tried. It is not for me. I recognise song writing and delivery. Particularly in the ballads. The opening song, while I realy disliked it, was brave enough to nail its colours. Hurricane was a much welcome change, and following it made it even better than it maybe is. The rest, a bit of cringe (personal not general), a bit of pleasant.

That's unfortunately all I have to say on it.

Firstly thanks for listening when it's not your cup of tea. In some ways it's probably more interesting when people don't like something than when they do. At the risk of sounding like Dr Anthony Clare i'd be interested to know if you managed to isolate what aspects cause the cringe? I say that because I kind of get it and there's other music not a million miles away from this that I probably feel similar about.

 

[threespires]

That said, I did enjoy the instruments and the mix, I just thought that it would have been even better had it edged back towards the acoustics and roughed up a bit. I don't know whether Coatigan is ready to pounce on my next statement, but dare I say a little more grit in the mix.

It's interesting because at the time it was released probably the main/only criticism it got was that at a point when a lot of americana artists had embraced low fi and for want of a more specific phrase 'gritty' production, this was flying in the face of that trend. It's hard to argue with that and as I said in my review normally I'd jump on that myself and be the first to have that moan but in this instance I choose to be a bit hypocritical. I don't know whether Greenberg's background as a session musician impacts this, even on the brilliant wailing guitars outro to No Next Time off The Hardest Part album, there's always control and never abandonment in the playing. That said I think maybe the reason it works for me is that Moorer's voice is so crystalline that it suits or maybe even needs that crystalline production approach. If I compare her to another of my favourite female americana artists Lucinda Williams, William's voice is smokier and more rugged and suits a quite different type of arrangement and production. Horses for courses and all that I guess.

 

[BimboBob]

Struggling with this if I'm honest. I'm not a big fan of country, less so female country music, and while I can understand that the songs are very heartfelt given the upbringing both sisters had its not enough to trigger my brain into liking it. Saying that, Hurricane is a doozy of a song and a welcome change from the rest. It really made me sit up and internally go...oh hello.

Not really that hard to score, Hurricane gets 3 points on it's own the rest probably a 1. A shame that the rest of the album resorts to type.

4/10

 

[threespires]

Struggling with this if I'm honest. I'm not a big fan of country, less so female country music, and while I can understand that the songs are very heartfelt given the upbringing both sisters had its not enough to trigger my brain into liking it. Saying that, Hurricane is a doozy of a song and a welcome change from the rest. It really made me sit up and internally go...oh hello.

Not really that hard to score, Hurricane gets 3 points on it's own the rest probably a 1. A shame that the rest of the album resorts to type.

4/10

You gave my last pick 1/10, don't tell me you're going soft and turning into a cuddly old grouch ? ;-)

 

[RobMCFC]

Struggling with this if I'm honest. I'm not a big fan of country, less so female country music, and while I can understand that the songs are very heartfelt given the upbringing both sisters had its not enough to trigger my brain into liking it. Saying that, Hurricane is a doozy of a song and a welcome change from the rest. It really made me sit up and internally go...oh hello.

Not really that hard to score, Hurricane gets 3 points on it's own the rest probably a 1. A shame that the rest of the album resorts to type.

4/10

Are you Ian Botham in disguise?

For the last six "deliveries" you've scored: 6-4-6-4-4-4

 

[BlueHammer85]

Are you Ian Botham in disguise?

For the last six "deliveries" you've scored: 6-4-6-4-4-4

And it’s been a really good strong run of Albums

If I could only muster consistent 4-6 for all these variety of Albums then I’d probably think maybe Music isn’t for me.

 

[RobMCFC]

And it’s been a really good strong run of Albums

If I could only muster consistent 4-6 for all these variety of Albums then I’d probably think maybe Music isn’t for me.

I agree. I think it's been a very good run of albums that I scored: 7-6.5-6-9-8-8

 

[threespires]

I agree. I think it's been a very good run of albums that I scored: 7-6.5-6-9-8-8

But there has been a reasonable amount of similarity in a number of them so if it's not your bag... I reckon Bimbo would have scored my alternative pick for this round as a minimum 7 and quite possibly higher (we'll see next time round!).

edit: meant as reply to BH.

 

[bennyboy]

For some reason I have never heard any of her stuff before so I was really looking forward to this listen as it should be up my street.
Good start musically with like it used to be,thunderstorm/hurricane, I lost my crystal ball and down to believing
Then a few tracks that I found quite boring until the track blood which I enjoyed the most.An decent version of have you ever seen the rain and that was it.
Found her voice nothing special,as somebody pointed out earlier I would have preferred an Lucinda Williams type gravel voice on vocals.
Still I will give her other stuff a listen as there is good song writing and musically good tracks from this album to investigate further.
Might even get a very good playlist from her other albums.
6/10.