NOTHING TO PROVE. (Oh Mercy - Bob Dylan)

Member Name: thingywhatsit

Product:	Oh Mercy - Bob Dylan
Date:	10/11/05 (137 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Bob Dylan at his best with nothing to prove.

Disadvantages: Not one of his most sold albums but should be.

I am probably going to show my age with this review of Bob Dylan's album, but I don't care. I have been in the listening public since the beginning of this guy's legendary career and it is probably my age that allows me to write what I feel to be a balanced review of what I feel to be the best album that Bob Dylan ever made.

Hiding behind a cover that looks somewhat dated is an album that really is not, and that is still believeable and very real even after more than 15 years since its release. Never judge a book by its cover, as this would mean you would miss out on a little piece of musical history that is indeed under rated.

Commercially, Bob has made some very astute decisions, and many listeners are aware of his singing from the commercial point of view. Listening to him from an original point of view, and taking in some of the songs on this album actually take the listener to a time when it wasn't the commercial aspects that were paramount. The man had already struck out his mark on the music industry, and I feel that with lessened pressure on him as an artist, this is probably one of his more notable albums, and certainly one of my all time favourites, which I would recommend to those who are still in the process of discovering what Bob Dylan really is and where he stands as a musician, upbeat, downbeat in places, a cross between folk, in that the words are so finely tuned, and rock and roll in style and beat.

The album was released in 1989 and this seemed to be at the very peak of his career, and a time when he cared passionately about the materialistic nature of the world, as shown by his clever wording of Political World. This really is a little bit of a dig about how society was moving in the eighties and one that I can relate to in my own life. The thing that Dylan achieves is that his songs are univerally recognised by ordinary people, and that his amazing ability to write songs that last cannot be questioned, as this album has demonstrated.

The Disease of conceipt is another very relevant song and one that stands out as very real, in that he has tackled one of society's failings and shown it for what it is. His words intertwine and mingle with the mood of each song, and the switch between pessimism and self criticism in songs like What Good am I ? take the listener through moods and style that is essentially Bob Dylan at his very best.

I think that commercially this album is under-estimated in that his more commercial albums seem to be the norm when you speak to people who associate with the music of Dylan although serious critics of his work together with those who collect Dylan seem to agree with me that this album really does stand out as his best. Take for example his step into the surreal with the album Desire, and the songs and words are not as convincingly sincere as they are with this one.

"Most of the Time", and the track "The Man in the Long Black Coat" seem to have been singled out by listeners as special songs, although here I would disagree and feel that what makes this album a cut above the others is the essential naivety but sincerity of his words and his belief in them.

The song "Everything is broken" has been imitated by artists from all over the world including where I live here in France, but why were they imitated if they held little significance to the people that were listening way back then ? Well, the answer to this one is relatively simple. They liked what they heard and tried to reproduce it.

The album is relatively cheaply available these days on Amazon for as little as three pounds, and for my mind, that three pounds takes the listener into a space in time where the quality of music lay in clever lyrics, sung convincingly with a voice that seemed as if it knew the emotions, the frustrations, the anger and perhaps even indignity that the world imposes on the individual and to such a degree that this is an album that has never been adequately replaced within my collection, because the thoughts and feelings posed at the time of release are still relevant, and have not been superceded by time.

This really is Dylan at his best and all songs on the album can be credited to the man that made verse in music mean something. I honestly believe that there are few artists that have come up to the standards demonstrated as possibility in this album, and it will certainly enhance any serious music lover's collection.

A super album.

Summary: The best it gets.