Album reviews
Bob Dylan
‘The Bootleg Series Vol. 9’
(SONY MUSIC)
Bob Dylan lovers have cause to rejoice this holiday season. The ninth volume of The Bootleg Series (the first released in 1991, to satiate the needs of those Dylan fans in search of real bootlegs) comprises of the rough studio recordings for the Witmark and Leeds Demos. It is in the fact that these performances are not intended for mass consumption lies their charm. You hear the musician joke, laugh, cough throughout the recordings, even a door slamming in the background.
Remastered in mono — just the way Dylan intended — the recordings were created in that timeframe between 1962 to 1964, when he was still finding himself as a writer. The older material sees Dylan emulating idol Woody Guthrie in songs such as “Talking Bear Mountain Picnic Massacre Blues’’ and “Oxford Town.” While the American folk he grew from is evident through much of the material, the second half of the 2-disc compilation sees Dylan branch out into his own, such as the lightly fingered, sweetly meandering “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right.”
The laidback atmosphere seems to allow the young Dylan to continue experimenting with his songs, their lyrical phrasings, and discover the range and contour of his own vocal instrument in tracks like “Girl From the North Country” (which boasts a deep, wistful emotion that flickers with a blues tinge surprising for a man in his early 20s).
But this volume also contains those anthemic political numbers, standing for the civil rights and anti-war movements of the ‘60s via “Blowin’ In the Wind,” “Masters of War” and “The Times They Are A-Changin.’” Though he famously stopped composing these topical melodies with “Bringing it All Back Home,” the revisitation in the Bootleg version serves as a nostalgic treasure. The rare piano version of penultimate track “Mr. Tambourine Man” leaves off in the Dylan timeline at the beginnings of his surrealist period, which he continued into his next few albums.
While 32 of the 47 tracks have been previously released in the Bootleg series or elsewhere, their inclusion here is an unfaltering step for the Dylan lover, providing new quirks and idiosyncracies which complete the portrait of the artist as a young man. The 15 unique recordings are pure gold; all the rest is simply another reason to fall in love with him, all over again.
Why we recommend it: From novices to connoisseurs, the rough recordings of Dylan provide an intimate, humorous look into the evolution of one of the century’s best-known musicians.
Best tracks: “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right,” “Girl From the North Country”
— KIM YOUNG-JIN, INES MIN
James Blunt
‘Some Kind of Trouble’
(WARNER MUSIC KOREA)
Brit James Blunt made a slow, quiet entrance onto the music scene in 2003, moving from his un-reviewed debut album to the critics’ spotlight in 2005. While the year saw a ubiquity of his music on hit TV shows — including “The O.C.” — it seems as if the former army officer was perhaps just an ephemeral sensation, a component to that trend of melodramatics and homebrew intimacy.
The 36-year-old and his trembling tenor help his third studio album find a distinct sound, but efforts fall short with shallow tracks lacking in both complexity and imagination. While the majority of the numbers run together into a bland blend of verse and chorus, only the White Stripes-ish “Turn Me On” (forgive the comparison) really stands out. The charm of “Trouble” lies in the musician’s small-town boy’s sincerity, but it’s not enough to exalt him to Damien Rice’s lasting power or even teeny-bopper David Archuleta’s catchiness.
— INES MIN
Susan Boyle
‘The Gift’
Susan Boyle has transcended from the pits of the unknown to become a household name in less than two years. The rise of the unlikely 49-year-old gripped the world over YouTube and, though she has settled into a comfortable level of reality superstardom, Boyle’s music continues to boom forth in that oddly majestic, maternal way.
“The Gift,” her second full release since that fateful day on “Britain’s Got Talent,” comes just in time for the holiday season, full of wintry favorites and some rock classics. Though the album drips with feel-good cliches (try “Do You Hear What I Hear,” a duet with Amber Stassi, the winner of Boyle’s own singing competition Susan’s Search), Boyle’s rendition of Cohen’s “Hallelujah” is nonetheless inspiring. Tracks include everything from “The First Noel” to the festive “Auld Lang Syne,” culminating in a nostalgic album that hits those emotional breaks just right for, well, mothers.