so rolling stone handed bob dylan yet another 5-star review

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

just like his last 2 albums got from the magazine

proving that the way to get one is to be someone jan wenner listend to in his youth.

dylan WAS a genius-indisputably, but to claim that his new album is that good is pushing it.

remeber that universally-panned mick jagger solo album from a few years ago that Wenner personally wrote the flawless review for. i've heard Modern Times and this is another case of that, in my opinion. it's ok, but up to the same standards as his 60s stuff?-hardly.

It's rare that an artist under the age of 50 gets the coveted 5 star treatment. Many of this generation's classics -OK Computer, Nevermind didn't pass the test.

This magazine needs to quit glorifying the past-their-prime work of 60s figures and give the new blood a chance.

[MrCoffee]

1. They gave a dump he took back in 2002 four and a half

[mvd]

2. 4 stars sounds good

I didn't expect him to sound like he did in the 60s, and the moribund route was done already by Zevon. Dylan has found a way to still be vital.

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

4. it's good, but not great

kinda drags near the end, actually. i's give it a 4, but definitely no higher.

[mvd]

7. We pretty much agree, then

Well worth purchasing IMO, but maybe not top 20. I don't notice any drop at the end, but there are a few slow spots mixed in.

[Rabrrrrrr]

3. I stopped trusting Rolling Stone about, oh, 1978.

[NNadir]

5. I was about 4 or 5 years ahead of you.

But for young artists, they did some nice work ups on Briteny Spears. Who says they're not up on modern music?

[Rabrrrrrr]

8. Well, I didn't start reading it until then.

I was only 12.

Though I would bet money it lost its relevance in 1970/71.

[NNadir]

9. Actually it was pretty funny. Wenner interviewed Dylan about the meaning

of his songs - the deeper meaning - whether "Like A Rolling Stone" was about post-Kantian phenomenological quantum relativistic corrections to the theory of continental drift - and Dylan told him that "Like A Rolling Stone" and all of his other songs were about nothing in particular, that there was no deeper meaning.

Yeah, Rolling Stone was irrelevant by 1971.

[mvd]

10. I don't think RS was ever THE most important music entity

Billboard probably was. RS still has some pop culture stuff that I like.

[NNadir]

13. My favorite music magazine was Downbeat.

They had the best review ever when they remarked - I'm paraphrasing - that John Abercrombie's albums were sheer brilliance that he regularly turned out with little notice in a workman like way.

Overall I agree with those who say it is silly to review music. I think John Abercrombie is God, but other people may disagree. It's taste, not truth.

In defense of Jan Wenner, by the way, I was a big Dylan worshiper as a kid and I also believed that his lyrics were pregnant with deeper meaning. I was as surprised as Jan was. Still, I haven't found all that much worthwhile in the magazine in 25 years in the few times I've bothered to open it up.

[mvd]

15. Yes, I agree about reviews

If I had a publication, what I'd do is recommend some albums many others haven't heard of. That's about it. I do write opinions on the albums I hear, but casually. I just like expressing myself. Even people who are less sure than I am of the music they like/dislike can find many options online to hear stuff from albums.

Even though I still like some RS features, I don't subscribe. I pick what I want to read from their website.

[A-Schwarzenegger]

17. Yeah, Dylan was always straightforward answering questions.

[NNadir]

18. You mean there was a deeper meaning and he just wasn't telling us?

You know, come to think of it, I think this is the best interpretation of that line in "Desolation Row" when Dylan sang "They're selling postcards of the hanging..."

I think that Dylan knew instinctively that someday Jan Wenner would interview him about deeper meanings and that the deeper meaning was that he would someday hang Jan Wenner out to dry.

I should have known. I can't believe I lost my faith in Dylan's omniscience. (Takes a drag on a joint) "Like man, Dylan, is like God man, like it's like so profound."

[A-Schwarzenegger]

19. It's up to you/me to find whatever meaning, deeper or otherwise, is there.

Why should the artist do all the work? Create sense out
of the mystery, and then explain it to us? Think, see, feel
for ourselves. Dylan said somewhere that his intent or
job is to inspire. Explanation is not inspiration. Just
my view. Peace.

[NNadir]

24. I always thought it was up to Jan Wenner to explain it all for us.

Your point about art is well taken though.

I lived in the sixties though, where "deeper meaning," particularly where Bob Dylan was concerned, was sometimes taken to definitive extremes. Sometimes "Everybody must get stoned," means exactly what it says and nothing more.

I can't help being a little cynical and sarcastic about it all now that I am older. I am very disappointed in my generation. I think at the end of the day we all had our heads up our collective asses.

Peace.

[mvd]

6. I don't like music reviewers in general

Many of them don't really have a love of music - they just enjoy complaining and trying to out-pontificate everyone else. Music shouldn't be that way, as it's a very subjective and rewarding art form. What might be junk for one person could be highly entertaining for someone else. What is profound for one person might not do anything for someone else. Also, many reviews are poorly written and have agendas. I don't follow any review sources, but Rolling Stone isn't the biggest offender IMO: the biggest offenders are sites like Stylus Magazine, Slant Magazine, E! Online, Hip Online, and New Musical Express.

[mvd]

25. You'll see how the reviewers and I..

have a couple huge differences from this year alone. My top 25, and the reviewer consensus in parentheses:

Dixie Chicks - Taking The Long Way (mostly good)
The Corrs - Home (solid)
Camera Obscura - Let's Get Out Of This Country (mostly good)
The Essex Green - Cannibal Sea (I've seen two reviews - one great, one good)
Nina Gordon - Bleeding Heart Graffiti (definitely fair, and it's the most underrated CD! Who cares that it has so many ballads then they are that good.)
Damone - Out Here All Night (good)
Mojave 3 - Puzzles Like You (solid)
Leigh Nash - Blue On Blue (solid)
Jennifer O'Connor - Over The Mountain (mostly good)
Neil Young - Living With War (mostly good)
Lillix - Inside The Hollow (saw one review at Village Voice; it was good with reservations)
Belle And Sebastian - The Life Pursuit (mostly good)
Guster - Ganging Up On The Sun (mostly good)
Margot & Nuclear So & So's - Dust of Retreat (very good; best of year by many)
Josh Ritter - Animal Years (mostly good)
Cat Power - The Greatest (mostly good)
Rosanne Cash - Black Cadillac (very good)
Susan Cagle - The Subway Recordings (Solid review at AMG; deserved a lot better. Marisa Brown seems to have different taste than I do. It's A+ quality music, but the noise made me give an A.)
Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings The Flood (mostly good)
Some Girls - Crushing Love (mostly good)
Ingrid Michaelson - Girls & Boys (N/A)
Regina Spektor - Begin To Hope (mostly good)
Pearl Jam - self-titled (mostly good)
Gomez - How We Operate (solid)
Pete Yorn - Nightcrawler (fair)

Bob Dylan's CD isn't the most overrated by far IMO. I don't get Scott Walker and many of those with stars at Metacritic.com.

[leftofthedial]

11. I think everyone should quit paying attention to the music press

they're all idiots.

[Human Torch]

12. Dylan granted them a cover story interview in the latest issue...

...which translates to an automatic 5 stars. That's the way Wenner's always played it.

:eyes:

[stlsaxman]

14. Rolling Stone became irrelevant the day Lester Bangs died.

They no longer had anyone to raise the bar or call them on their shit.

[evlbstrd]

16. As he often did, Zappa said it best.

Music journalists are people who can't write, doing interviews with people who can't think, in order to prepare articles for people who can't read.

[tuvor]

20. You reminded me of David Lee Roth's take on music critics.

Not verbatim, but "More critics like Elvis Costello because more critics look like Elvis Costello.

(And for the time, EC was pretty damn nerdy looking.)

[evlbstrd]

21. Truth be told,

didn't just about everybody like Elvis Costello more than David Lee Roth?

[tuvor]

22. Hah!

Not then, not at my high school.

Hell, I wore a homemade "OZZY SUCKS" t-shirt the day after he performed locally (1982), and I got the nastiest looks.

(I'm so old, I remember when "sucks" was an incredibly rude term.)

[evlbstrd]

23. Hmm.

High school. That's the difference. I'd been in and out of the Navy and was almost finished with college then.

[warrens]

26. A. About a million

Q. How many actual, objective, talented rock critics has Rolling Stone deep-sixed in its history?

I haven't read that rag in 20 years, except at the Korean restaurant I go to for takeout sometimes. For some reason, they always have the latest issue lying around.