Original Soundtrack - I'm Not There
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Free Music Notes for I'm Not There
Free Music Review: NOT MUCH THAT BETTERS THE ORIGINAL - BUT STILL INTERESTING
Hit: 3 Stars
As I look through my i-tunes collection, I realize that I already have six versions of "Highway 61 Revisited" saved digitally on my computer. A few are various Dylan recordings and the remainder are covers by other artists. I have eight versions of "All Along the Watchtower," nine versions of "Just Like a Woman," and over a dozen renderings of "Knockin' on Heaven's Door." All of this overkill begs the question; Does the world need another album of artists covering Bob Dylan songs? The simple answer is `Of course not", but the soundtrack for "I'm Not There" is not quite so simple.
Over the course of two disks, thirty-four recordings by almost as many artists veer wildly all over place. Some are faithful to the original recordings, while others are incredibly imaginative recreations. For my money, it's the reinvented tracks that may help this collection become something more than a novelty. Perhaps the most surprising thing is how many of the most iconoclastic artists are the very ones who play it safest. Eddie Vedder sounds great on "All Along the Watchtower," but he does nothing that hasn't been done hundreds of times before. Cat Power and Karen O created virtual carbon copies of Dylan's own recordings, leaving me to wonder why they would even bother, since any cover band could have done the same thing. Even Jeff Tweedy disappointed, with a true-to-form but straightforward reading of "A Simple Twist of Fate."
The most successful stuff here are the acts who chose obscure material, or have rendered the song into something new and interesting in its own right. The Los Lobos version of "Billy 1" is totally cool, and casts an obscure gem in an entirely new light. Iron and Wine teamed up with Calexico to create as moody an interpretation of "Dark Eyes" as I could imagine. You'll have to listen twice before you even recognize it. I also have to give props to Yo La Tengo - a band that usually does not impress me much - for choosing "I Wanna Be Your Lover." This may the hardest-rocking song this band has ever stumbled upon. I don't even know where Stephen Malkmus found "Can't Leave Her Behind," but I'm glad he did, while Sufjan Stevens turns "Ring Them Bells" into a Van Dyke Parks-style show tune.
I guess everybody will read this collection in their own way, but I doubt that anyone would consider it to be indispensable. As for myself, I intend to load a dozen or so tracks into my i-tunes, but I'll skip the recordings that bring nothing new to the table. B Tom Ryan
Free Music Review: I'm Not There soundtack
Hit: 5 Stars
I bought this for my girlfriend. The music is great and so was the movie. Please buy if you like Bob Dylan's music!!Free Music Review: Dylan without The Dead???
Hit: 3 Stars
A very good Dylan cover compilation, don't get me wrong...but how can you really have any kind of a Dylan cover compilation without The Grateful Dead??? For that I can only give it a 3 star.
Next time someone does a Bob movie...include The Dead.
Free Music Review: One real gem
Hit: 4 Stars
One real gem is Please Crawl Out Your Window. A throw-away when Bob did it, but all of Bruce in this version.
As for Dylan covers - He was ALWAYS covered from the start (Byrds, Peter Paul & Mary, Turtles) so what's the big deal.
Free Music Review: The Spirit of Dylan isn't quite here, either
Hit: 3 Stars
A bunch of indie/alt stars get together and pay tribute to Bob with a lot of covers. It's an uneven experience. The most famous songs tend to come across worst. Stephen Malkmus, Karen Oh or Cat Power trying to turn well worn phrases like 'you know something is happening, but you don't know what it is' into their own comes off very karaoke. Other efforts work better. Yo La Tengo demonstrate that Fourth Time Around is a song they were in fact born to cover (and what a great song--practically invented the passive-aggressive attitude towards romance that has defined indie-rock forever). Eddie Vedder (with a lot of help from Tom Verlaine on guitar) pulls off an excellent All Along the Watchtower. And the less famous songs, like John Doe's version of Pressing On, and Sufjan Stevens' Ring Those Bells, tend to work better. However, there is a problem with the overall gestalt. In his day, Dylan was incredibly audacious--ignoring his cult and crossing straight over into the world of pop. By contrast, nearly all the performers here seem a little timid and smug. Here's an alternative idea--how about an album with all the acts who manage to straddle that art/commercial divide today--Kanye West, Amy Winehouse, Daft Punk, etc.--covering Dylan. Some of these acts are probably unfamiliar with his catalogue, and I'm sure that would be for the best.
I was tempted to add a star to my rating because of the inclusion of the previously unreleased Basement Tape, I'm Not There. It is outstanding.