Bob Dylan's Modern Times, a new Masterpiece?

DREADFULLY COMPRESSED RECORDING - WHAT WAS THE PRODUCER THINKING - this album cannot hold a candle to OH MERCY....

Wendell,

Just compare Modern Times to Bob Dylan's "Oh Mercy", for example, take the track "Man in the Long Black Cold" and hopefully it will become clear what I mean about compression. I find Dylan's voice is uniformly loud clear and monotonous on Modern Times...sounds like compression but it might be bad miking....of course it may likely be an intentional "effect" rather than a mistake and some people may prefer it....to me it lacks dynamics of real music.

(There are often two points of view; Daniel Lanois messed up U2 sound IMHO but he was also praised for the sound "style" by many. So we may disagree simply due to preferences)

Audiofeil,

You are right I am referring to CD and you may be right. The CD may be compressed mnore than vinyl ...another victim of loudness wars...

Wendell,

If you happen to get a chance to compare the two directly through the same system - do let us know...

BTW I like Dylan too - just not pleased with the quality of this CD - that is all.

Audiofeil,

I agree with your description. The instruments have a far away kind of sound and the vocals are edgy. Whatever is the cause, I find it has the monotonous kind of sound of much of today's pop music, which lack dynamic range due to compression in order to sound loud.

It is hard to compare Dylan to other pop music (and unfair as he is such a legend) but I would contrast Modern Times with the Oh Mercy Dylan album where the sound has huge and impressive dynamics from very soft to loud.

Dylan deliberately took control of the sonic production of Modern Times as he rebels against modern CD and digital - he may be a great artist but IMHO his sound engineering skills are not up to scratch of other pros. I guess his criticisms of CD and digital are also an indirect attack on Daniel Lanois who was behind the arty and atmospheric sound of TOOM and Oh Mercy (which were both very successful albums).

Hdm and Ben,

I agree with your criticisms, no doubt my guess went way too far. A better wording might be "An verbal attack on the way modern music sounds and at the same time to take control of the sound production suggests a certain dissatisfaction with what was done previously."

Anyone feel that the sound on the MT album is in anyway similar to the Johnny Cash sound? (not the voice just the way the instruments are mixed with the vocals...just a thought)