1976's Desire marked a radical departure for Dylan; freshly split from wife Sara and back in the studio for the first time since the the angst-ridden and emotional rollercoster of Blood on The Tracks, Dylan embarked on a new project entirely. Enlisting the help of Jacques Levy to share songwriting duties (an unconventional move for Mr Zimmerman), Dylan records an album unlike any other in his back catelogue. The tone is set with superb "Hurricane" - a song about the unlawful trial and incarceration of heavyweight boxer, Rubin "Hurricane" Carter (significantly, Dylan's first "protest song" in over a decade) - with Dylan ...  Read the complete review

Nobody seems to have reviewed Desire yet on here, so i think i'll give it a go. I earlier tried to review "Blood on the Tracks", but the task was so monumental, that i gave in! More from me on that score later... Now 'Desire'...I've often found that Dylan albums are wildly different from one to the next, so any attempts at saying that there was a "period where he was at his best", is very difficult, but i'd certainly plump for the mid to late 70s. My reasoning behind this is simple, i feel as though he began to write as himself, rather than the persona of "Dylan"; a real man in a real place with real feelings that arent ...  Read the complete review

Having been pipped to the post as the first to review this, i will now lay down my opinion on this, the nest album after Dylan's monumnetal Blood On The Tracks, which i would recommend heartily. But onto desire, after the success of the quite sparse sound of Blood On The Tracks, Dylan came out with this more instrumentally filled album, which includes the beautiful violin playing of Scarlet Riviera, who Dylan apparently requested for the album after seeing her playing on the street for money. This is a much different album, and as in the style of Dylan, you are never sure what a new album will bring until you have heard it for yourself. And i know that some will detest ..  Read the complete review

'Desire' is quite a contrast to the album that preceded it, 'Blood on the Tracks'. In place of the sparse musical arrangements and heart-on-sleeve sense of loss, there is a series of more richly-accompanied narrative songs, shrouded in imagery and above all the Tarot card theme of the cover art, giving the analysts something to chew over. The record was heralded by controversy, trailed by the single (and first track) 'Hurricane', a defence of the black boxer Hurricane Carter, on trial for murder on thoroughly shaky evidence. Leaving aside the associated justice issues, Dylan's in-your-face lyrical venom is acute on this ...  Read the complete review

'Desire' is Dylan's odyssey into collaboration, a joint effort with a large band of travelling musicians, coined as the Rolling Thunder Revue. The group included violinist Scarlet Rivera, vocalist Emmylou Harris & folky Bob Neuwirth, the album came on the back of a huge tour around the music halls of America & Canada, Dylan works with the musicians assembled here as much as he has with anyone barring The Band, the result is a very, very good album, which just falls short of being considered amongst his very best work. 'The Hurricane' is Dylan's flawless, near nine minute tribute to wrongly imprisoned boxing contender Rubin Carter, & is ...  Read the complete review