:: Love And Theft

Bob Dylan

In 1999 Bob Dylan came back to life. Not that his influence had ever diminished, but when he released the slow brooding brilliance of Time Out of Mind, he was again a truly relevant artist, both sonically and lyrically. He traipsed through the blues, meditated on love, loss and death, all with the comic slyness that only Bob was capable of. Once again Dylan was music and music was Dylan. With Love and Theft, his (check) 43rd studio album, lesser artists would simply find themselves going through the motions. But Dylan, while embracing the blues in such a way not seen since the late 1960’s, uses his love of traditional American sounds to bring a heady brew of groove to the record. There’s a spot of Cajun, bluegrass, banjo-duelling blues (High Water – for Charlie Patton) and even a little show tune waltz (Bye and Bye). The record is also hilarious in parts, as Dylan tells tales with a buoyancy (I’m in love with my second cousin/I tell myself I could be happy forever with her) as he muses like an old man in Floater (too much to ask). The record may give a glimpse of Dylan’s love of American music, but it’s his lyrical brilliance that shines through. Let’s hope Dylan’s in a groove and a place where he is producing albums of this quality for many years to come.