First impressions can be definitive, and those of you who glommed onto the YouTube of 30-second samples that were mistakenly posted by Amazon last month may have already developed a notion of this album. Gotta say there's not much to misinterpret from the preview. Folks who glommed onto Mistletunes in the past because it offers the rock 'n roll alternative to carefully groomed old-old-school pop renditions of traditional carols, well, this 2009 release is the kind of album you came here to get away from. As Bob Dylan is a rock 'n roll icon, however, we couldn't turn away from his first-ever Christmas album, so here it is. Considering his work on the "Theme Time Radio Hour," abetted by musical scholar Eddie Gorodetsky (Eddie G), my first impression upon hearing about this album was that Dylan might have something equally eclectic up his sleeve. Looking at the package as a whole, however, from the album art (fake Currier & Ives on the front, a Bettie Page holiday pinup on the inside) along with the fact that Dylan arranged and produced ("Jack Frost" being his producer's pseudonym), I have to believe that this is exactly the album Dylan set out to make. Indeed, even the "Christmas Blues" he performs is the Sammy Cahn number, not anything by any of the old-time blues artists. If you consider this disc as a mid-20th century American artifact you might have found in an old chest in your great-grandma's attic (ignoring the fact it would have had to be on vinyl), then the whole thing makes perfect sense, and the pop music history Dylan drew upon to make "Theme Time" also informs this album. Indeed, if you took Dylan's voice off these songs and substituted Gene Autry, the project wouldn't miss a beat. The only fly in the ointment is that Dylan's voice just isn't suited for this sort of vintage pop workout -- his voice is the vehicle by which we get his songwriting, but he didn't write anything here. All that said, I still like Dylan's "Must Be Santa," and I wish this song had been the springboard to the rest of the disc. UPDATE: Forgot to mention that proceeds from this disc will benefit hunger charities around the world, including Feeding America here in the U.S.
Christmas In the Heart, Bob Dylan (Columbia)
First impressions can be definitive, and those of you who glommed onto the YouTube of 30-second samples that were mistakenly posted by Amazon last month may have already developed a notion of this album. Gotta say there's not much to misinterpret from the preview. Folks who glommed onto Mistletunes in the past because it offers the rock 'n roll alternative to carefully groomed old-old-school pop renditions of traditional carols, well, this 2009 release is the kind of album you came here to get away from. As Bob Dylan is a rock 'n roll icon, however, we couldn't turn away from his first-ever Christmas album, so here it is. Considering his work on the "Theme Time Radio Hour," abetted by musical scholar Eddie Gorodetsky (Eddie G), my first impression upon hearing about this album was that Dylan might have something equally eclectic up his sleeve. Looking at the package as a whole, however, from the album art (fake Currier & Ives on the front, a Bettie Page holiday pinup on the inside) along with the fact that Dylan arranged and produced ("Jack Frost" being his producer's pseudonym), I have to believe that this is exactly the album Dylan set out to make. Indeed, even the "Christmas Blues" he performs is the Sammy Cahn number, not anything by any of the old-time blues artists. If you consider this disc as a mid-20th century American artifact you might have found in an old chest in your great-grandma's attic (ignoring the fact it would have had to be on vinyl), then the whole thing makes perfect sense, and the pop music history Dylan drew upon to make "Theme Time" also informs this album. Indeed, if you took Dylan's voice off these songs and substituted Gene Autry, the project wouldn't miss a beat. The only fly in the ointment is that Dylan's voice just isn't suited for this sort of vintage pop workout -- his voice is the vehicle by which we get his songwriting, but he didn't write anything here. All that said, I still like Dylan's "Must Be Santa," and I wish this song had been the springboard to the rest of the disc. UPDATE: Forgot to mention that proceeds from this disc will benefit hunger charities around the world, including Feeding America here in the U.S.
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