Expecting Rain

Well it is not my favourite album but I you I really enjoy it and agree with your views.

I shared your concern re the lack of juice/oomph for the first few plays until I realised I was falling into the trap of comparing it to L&T. I wanted Thunder to change gears and sound like Summer Days live circa 2002 for example. Then a breakthrough- a glass of red wine, feet up and an acceptance that MT is a more relaxed, refined, smoother animal altogether. The "L&T lite" criticism may be coming from folk who subliminally or otherwise want "L&T 2". Accept it on its own terms and the album works just fine. This baby sails rather than motors. If you want coughs, splutters and the rough roar of an engine (and I often do), L&T and TTL are the way to go. MT is a more civilised ride and there's plenty of room for both styles.

Well said, carnap... it is an exceptionally good album... and easily fits into the required criteria for being considered as a masterpiece.

Those cloth-eared, pretentious buffoons who look to belittle this wondeful album are nothing but uneducated, academically challenged, quasi-intellectual fools and oafs.

I am sickened and disgusted with so-called folk who criticize Modern Times... I loathe and despise them and the ill thought-out, illogical clap-trap that they espouse... these dullard dunces know nothing and should keep their odiously upsetting opinions to themselves as no one, I repeat... NO ONE... wants to hear their wantonly outrageously negative thoughts on this stupendous album.

Modern Times would be the album that Mark Twain would have wrote had he been a singer-songwriter... per se, Dylan... and Dylan has captured the ghost... the essence of Mark Twain in the songs of Modern Times... and that is why this album is a modern day masterpiece of classic Americana writing... unsurpassed in todays modern world.

Here's what's wrong: it should be titled Mediocre Times.

An important element that makes the band sound "smaller" on this record is the fact that the drummer is playing with brushes.

Thanks Judas. I like the listening advice. So, you're with the Mighty Monkey that it's a design thing and not a bug? And yes, Summer Days is what I'm thinking of. It's late here and I can't put that on the speaker to compare, but I get all jumped up when that song comes on in the car.

Also, to be clear: Someday Baby does feel like it's meant to be restrained (like gritted teeth) and I like the overall sound. It has a tenseness that comes precisely, from the thing never taking off (...for me, that is). Nettie Moore, again, works great for me. It's the up tempo numbers (there's a cliché I don't get to say enough) that slightly frustrate.

Thanks to everyone for your thoughts. Even, and especially, thick boy.

http://www.cinchreview.com/bob-dylan-audio-scandal/570/

Heavy compression on CD-versions of MT and TTL.
I am wondering .... does BD know about the reason why these CDs sound not as good as they could?

BTW: TTS is affected as well ....

http://dr.loudness-war.info/index.php?s ... rch_album=

Here´s some proof as well.

-

Strange that a number of artists including Elton John of all people have absolutely raved about MT and its sound and production values. Sometimes I think the only people who know about Dylan are the ones who don't profess to admire him.

I wonder myself. My petition regarding this issue never took off, but I encourage you to sign it all the same.
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=69020&hilit=petition+excessive+compression

Dylan's judgement of how things sound is not what you might call, um, sound.

A cursory listen to any recent NET recording should demonstrate that.

I am 100% serious.

Modern times is one of my favourite bob albums, every album he's ever made is amazing.

Modern times actually happens to be my dads favourite bob dylan album, and Ain't talkin' is his favourite bob song, one of mine too.

But I bet you own a copy ?

I disagree strongly!

That I haven't felt moved to listen to in 5 years.

Well take it out and give it a spin you may well be surprised

Has it improved since I last played it?

Here's what's wrong:

1) Spirit On The Water----sloooooow, leaden, boring
2) When The Deal Goes Down-----obvious, nothing interesting going on

Replace those with Tell Ol Bill and something else and you've got a much better album.

A better mix/mastering job won't hurt, but the songs are more important than how they are mastered.

Consider also this playlist of Modern Times and TTS songs:

1) Thunder on the Mountain
2) Tell ol' Bill (TTS)
3) Rollin and Tumblin
4) Huck's Tune (TTS)
5) Someday Baby (TTS) yeah, it's probably the wrong one, but still...
6) Workingman's BLues
7) Cant Escape from You (TTS)
Nettie Moore
9) THe levee's going to fail to hold up or break or something
10) Aint Talkin' (TTS version)

I love Modern Times. BUT.. I love the acoustic album with electric instruments that you hear on the vinyl drop NOT the electric album with acoustic instruments the CD makes you hear!

This is good advice indeed. I never had a problem with 'Thunder' as recorded and I'm really surprised to find that people do. It's not supposed to be a mad blues rave-up like Lonesome Day Blues. It's more of a sauntering number. This polished, relaxed vibe is absolutely a key to MT in general. Take 'Spirit on the Water.' Has Dylan ever sounded gentler, less compelled to strain and push the song, just letting it be itself? I love the easy spirit he brings to it.

If the album has a problem, it's less in the sound than - frankly - in the writing. There's a raft of strong compositions on here (Thunder and Someday are great fun, WMB and AT are just tremendous songs, and most people consider Nettie Moore a great song, notiwthstanding my own reservations about it). But 'Spirit' meanders and survives mostly on its sonic pleasures; 'Horizon' plods along at about twice the appropriate length; 'Rollin'' somehow manages to be less than the some of its parts, some of which are quite neat; 'Levee' is banal filler; and although I enjoy 'Deal,' there's no denying that it walks very, very close to the edge of bad poetry. To my mind, Dylan is pushing his late-era songwriting formula as far as it can go on this album and the cracks are definitely starting to show. Funnily enough, I find that this is a rare Dylan album whose lyrical limitations are redeemed by the music and the sound -it's ear candy; most of the time, it works the other way around. In that sense, my reaction to MT is just the opposite of the post that started this thread.

Good points. You can also (if you wish) turned up the volume when Thunder on the Mountain is playing. That's what I do sometimes. It depends on how frisky and rambunctious you feel.

Polishing The Turd would be a more apposite album title.

Coffee table shite.

nice record all around.

I love Modern Times Favs Spirit On Water, Nettie Moore & workingman Blues, When Deal goes down Thunder most. Other tunes I enjoy too. MEZ

[quote="thickboy

Those cloth-eared, pretentious buffoons who look to belittle this wondeful album are nothing but uneducated, academically challenged, quasi-intellectual fools and oafs.

I am sickened and disgusted with so-called folk who criticize Modern Times... I loathe and despise them and the ill thought-out, illogical clap-trap that they espouse... these dullard dunces know nothing and should keep their odiously upsetting opinions to themselves as no one, I repeat... NO ONE... wants to hear their wantonly outrageously negative thoughts on this stupendous album.

Modern Times would be the album that Mark Twain would have wrote had he been a singer-songwriter... per se, Dylan... and Dylan has captured the ghost... the essence of Mark Twain in the songs of Modern Times... and that is why this album is a modern day masterpiece of classic Americana writing... unsurpassed in todays modern world.[/quote]

Posts like this usually make me laugh. Nice sense of deliberate sarcasm, but then i read on and get a strong Mcenroe feeling.First the spat about quasi-intellectuals,then the killer punch,'unsurpassed in todays modern world' (as opposed to yesterdays). very amusing