Bob Dylan - Tempest, Sept. 11, 2012

also:

On Monday, September 10, dedicated Bob Dylan Tempest "pop-up" stores will open for a seven day period in New York City, Los Angeles and London. At these stores, fans can purchase the new album, as well as other Bob Dylan releases and exclusive merchandise commemorating these week-long events, including a limited quantity of CDs hand-signed by Bob Dylan.

Bob Dylan Tempest stores will be open from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Monday, September 10 so that fans can buy Tempest a full day in advance of its official release, and will remain open from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. through Sunday, September 16. Stores will be located at the following U.S. locations:
819 Washington Street, New York, NY 10014
7763 Melrose Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90046
A Bob Dylan Tempest store will also open in London on Monday, September 10 and remain open through Monday, September 17 at the following location:
47 Beak Street, London, W1F 9SE

none of the PR surrounding this release makes any sense to me (ERK on that silly tv show trailer, weird video, what you just said, lame overpriced bundles http://www.myplaydirect.com/bobdylan) BUT fortunately the songs sound good. I'm guessing Dylan has nothing to do with anything but the music.

dylan's idea for a PR stunt was a civil war reenactment flash mob in times square but the city said no.

haha, if only...

RS 5 http://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/tempest-20120830

lecherous and treacherous

I like will hermes alot and he's hardly old guard rolling stone

"Narrow Way" is one of Dylan's most potent rockers in years, and it borrows a chorus from the Mississippi Sheiks' 1934 blues "You'll Work Down to Me Someday."

Maybe after Modern Times debate now press material includes list of references?

five star hyperbole aside, that review is exciting. "one of his weirdest albums ever"!

just leaked i think

nodata dot tv

Anyone checked out one of the pop-up listening locations? I might try to get to the one here in town tomorrow or Wednesday.

god "soon after midnight" is just so dreamy and creepy and brilliant like a perverse 70 year olds interpretation of the same feelings that birthed "walkin after midnight"

"narrow way" is a beast, reminds me of "tombstone blues" without all the cultural references

At this point, you can't convince me that 'Duquesne Whistle' isn't 'Dookie Whistle' and it's just Bob singing about his butthole.

like v much the recurring "watchman" in the titanic song, who sleeps through everything: "he dreamed the titanic was sinking / and he tried to tell someone".

also very pleased that the much-hyped dicaprio reference involves rhyming "leo" w "clio"

and he uses "balustrade" in the same line as "chandelier"

"Duquesne Whistle" is actually one of the weakest songs.

On first listen this is a real corker of a record. Though that John Lennon tribute is not done any favors by having to follow "Tempest".

I didn't get this record.

I like all the comeback albums, even Together Through Life, but the only song on this I remember as being particularly memorable was Duquesne Whistle. There's just not a lot of melody on this album. It's mostly him just spouting verse after verse after verse. I don't think anything here truly stacks up against Thunder On The Mountain, Not Dark Yet, Workingman Blues No. 2, or Mississippi.

I dunno. I'll listen to it again later.

I mean, the words are good, but the music is tasteful/far too restrained bar band stuff. Narrow Way deserves to rock a lot more than it actually does.

I liked the last album, but hated "Duquesne Whistle" so have my doubts about the rest of this one.

in case that leak gets removed, here's legit, streaming til release day (haven't listened yet, am experimenting w delayed gratification re doing homework)
itunes.com/bobdylan

Bumping this--as ^^ says, streaming free on iTunes.

intriguing description of recent concert
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/06/arts/music/a-jovial-dylan-celebrates-reopening-of-capitol-theatre.html?src=un&feedurl=http%3A%2F%2Fjson8.nytimes.com%2Fpages%2Farts%2Fmusic%2Findex.jsonp

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2012/09/06/arts/06dylan-1/06dylan-1-articleLarge-v2.jpg
new album is sounding good!

title track is definitely deep into some basement tapes vibes -- "sign on the cross" comes to mind.

oh wait, not the title track "Long and Wasted Years" is what i meant.

god his growling and heaving on "Pay in Blood" = hilarious

this album is pretty great, i gotta admit.

all his latest albums are overcompressed to the point of vomit

"Roll On John" is almost as wretched as "Lenny Bruce" and "Early Roman Kings" doesn't do anything with its "I woke up this morning" blues style. The rest is terrific.

"Long and Wasted Years" is great.

the whole thing should be about 20 minutes shorter, i'll admit.

all his latest albums are overcompressed to the point of vomit

yeah, but that's true of a lot of contemporary records.

(his aren't as bad as bruce springsteen's in this regard.)

Huh I've never thought that....wrt dylans records

yeah, i feel like they sound pretty spacious. i don't know, i am not sensitive to that stuff though.

Ditto. Modern Times and Together Through Life are definitely louder than their immediate predecessors, but not in a brickwally way.

http://www.emusician.com/folk/0802/recording-bob-dylan/139370

Interesting to read that a lot of the atmosphere of those records stems from the instruments bleeding into Bob's mic.

am I wrong in thinking I hear less instrumental flourishes on Tempest than on the others? It sounds monolithic: Dylan and the wall of sound churning behind him.

I listened to the itunes stream for couple songs but decided to wait.

That recording article is really interesting.

Listening to modern times note on my stereo, sounds good to me

I saw him live recently, around the time of that NY show reviewed above; he played some interesting piano, mostly I liked it but sometimes it just got in the way of Sexton's guitar. He was in great voice though, very full-throated. No songs from Tempest yet.

am I wrong in thinking I hear less instrumental flourishes on /Tempest/ than on the others? It sounds monolithic: Dylan and the wall of sound churning behind him.

Yeah I noticed this most on tin angel in particular. His singing on that song is great though.

iTunes isn't letting me play this, seems to be working OK otherwise, anybody else having the same prob?

The link in the first paragraph here worked for me. (If you just search for it on iTunes, it takes you to the album page which doesn't have working links to the songs yet.)

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/listen-to-bob-dylans-new-album-tempest-20120905

Yeah, that's the same link I xposted, but it didn't work for me 'til I just now opened it in Safari. Lots and lots of pungent lines from the old gent prowling every compartment of the 5:19. So many zingers, or ones that at least kept me listening, getting immersed in the overall effect, overall *sound*, the vibe x physical components, the imagery incl in both categories ("pungent", "compartments, yeah). So, despite the lack of solos, the music is strongly supportive (can even tell most of the tracks from each other).
All seems like a set-up, not for a prank, but to get me ready to board the Titanic. Not unlike a barroom sway along presented by the Pogues, also the kinds of things that were written soon after the sinking, and given Scorcese/Sergio Leone focus; splintery, pulpy sentiment, for the top-of-the-heap Sunday morning tabloids, and Once Upon A Time In The Atlantic. Itself a set-up for "Roll On John": "From the Liverpool docks..." He did make it to New York, unlike the Titanic, to share the universal mystery of each person's daeth, thus the way he (might as well be) conjectured as being bound like a slave, rolling through the cave, "shine on." I'll drink to that.

I think he's as serious and droll as he means to be, maybe needs to be, but I'll have to listen some more. Which is as it should be of course, in part to wrap my head around that sell. like I said, it's an immersive effect, the Dylan Show, as much as we're gonna get in the studio, unless he includes the live approach, and starts screwing with material he's just introduced us to. Do it!

i like the concept of an album where he does controversially unrecognizable versions of the songs on the same album, i.e. songs nobody has heard yet.

that's some borges-esque shit.

Thinkin he could do it straight, then gradually take it apart, though not quite unrecognizable--like Vince Gilligan's pitch to AMC re Breaking Bad, "Mr. Chips turns into Scarface." But as that happens, we see it's still the same guy, different components of his personality roiling around. Very disturbing--and some people online are having trouble letting go Mr. BB as a complicated hero--like letting go of your own Mr. D.