DYLAN: the summation of the career

It is impossible to calculate Bob Dylan's influence on popular music. As the author, he pioneered several different schools of pop songwriting, from confessional compositions to stream-of-conscious narratives. As a vocalist, he broke down the standards, saying that in order to perform, a singer had to have a conventionally good voice, thus reesteblishing the role of singer in pop-music. As a musician, he inspired several genres of popular music, including electrified folk-rock and country-rock. And this is a scarse enumeration of his achievements. Dylan's force was evident during his peak of popularity in the '60s - but his influence echoed throughout several subsequent generations. Many of his songs became popular standards, and his best albums were acknowledged classics of the rock & roll canon. Dylan's influence throughout folk music was equally strong, and he marks a crutial turning point in its XX century evolution. Even when his sales declined in the '80s and '90s, Dylan's presence was palpable. His powerful come back in 1997 was a big event in the musical world, and soon the artist proved he is still in perfect shape. This year Dylan released self-titled album DYLAN as the summation of the long career.

A retrospect work

DYLAN is a career-observing retrospective of Bob Dylan's music. This ultimate Bob Dylan's compillation chronicles the artist's four decades of innovative studio recordings, as well as his unparalleled effect on popular music and culture. Though the disc does not feature some of the artist's great hits, it gives a perfect insight into all phases in his creativity. DYLAN features the pop hits Blowin' In The Wind, deriving the melody from a slave song, and Like a Rolling Stone, written in the beginning of singer's career. The Times They Are A-Changin' belongs to the same period, but it represents Dylan's experiments with styles, combining blues and R&B with folk. Positively 4th Street and Rainy Day Women #12 & 35 are the artist's rock-n'-roll compositions, recreating the atmosphere of the winding '60s. Powerful Knockin' on Heaven's Door and protest-song Hurricane symbolize Dylan's recreation after the motocycle crash, while a contemplative and quiet song, All Along the Watchtower, reflects the artist's depeshe passion for Christianity. Such things, like World Gone Wrong, Make You Feel My Love and Things Have Changed represent the modern period in Dylan's career, taking him back to slow rock-ballads and blues.

The mighty compillation by the living legend

In 1985 and a couple of times later Bob Dylan released compillations of his best songs, some of the discs containing also his rare or earlier unreleased works. But DYLAN is absolutely different from the collections released before: this album is a fascinating and impressioning time trip. At first it takes the listener to the early '60s, when a young man singing folk music in coffehouses under the pseydonim Bob Dylan, knocked down New York and became extremely popular. Then one can move to the '70s that brought the artist to the eclectic approach to styles, so typical today, and the blamed by many peers use of electric instruments on the folk scene. After that the album gives the brief overview of the creatively unstable '80s with explicitly Christian songs, followed by the silence for the most part of the '90s. And finally the work takes us to nowadays, when everyone at least knows the name of this cult singer-songwriter, who lately aquiried a stylish image of an elderly slender cowboy with an attractively hoarse voice and a piercing gaze. It goes without saying, that the album is sure to become the cherished overview for long-time Bob Dylan devotees. DYLAN will also serve as an excellent introduction for new fans.

Ninelle Kazakoff
15.10.2007

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