modern times

i bought this cd in hong kong, from a hmv near the star ferry terminal, hong kong island side. it stayed in the cellophane wrap for 2 weeks after i bought it and traveled thousands of miles: some by land, some by sea but most by air before it reached a cd player. i heard it, then copied it onto my macbook.

i heard the hype months before i bought it. there was no doubt i would have bought it, but i wanted to hear other people's opinions. from all the things written about it, it seems that all these music journalists were whisked away into a secret bunker, allowed to listen to it with the lyrics in front of them, then told they couldn't say anything about it. they did say things about it. lots of hyperbole and all within the guidelines. nearly everything i read praised it. a lot of people said masterpiece. a lot of people said best album since (insert bob dylan album title here). some people said it sounded like a lot of other old music. most people thought this was a good thing. others thought it was a bad thing.

the problem i have it that there are no stand out tracks to an otherwise good album. it does sound like lots of old music. it's like blood and theft II and like all sequels rather relies too heavily on the originality of the first. the best track is working man blues. i like the simple wordplay of phrases and jutting words.

i'd rate it about the same as oh mercy. not as good as time out of mind nor world gone wrong. (oh yeah, reading gulliver's travels by j.swift. he uses the phrase time out of mind. i thought it was something dylan coined. i then looked it up on bartleby.com and found out time out of mind means so long ago that no one can remember. interesting eh?) of course it doesn't touch his diamonds or gold at all. it's rather like a nice looking teapot with a colourful but slightly weird pattern around it.

isn't it usual to end a review with a summary? well here we go then. a good album by a great artist equals a fine album. it will still be enjoyed when most of us are time out of mind. howzat?