BOB DYLAN
More Blood, More Tracks
[LP/CD](Legacy)
More often than not, 1975's "Blood on the Tracks" is selected as the pinnacle of Dylan's writing. It's not that the "Wild Mercury Music" from 1962-1967 is an amazing set of songs or his 1997-2006 revitalization are not equally enthralling; it's simply this is Dylan focused like a laser on the "truth."
After years of floundering and getting back his live chops with the Band in 1973-74, "Blood on the Tracks" is Dylan's one great attempt to reclaim the throne. The others all came naturally.
The environment around him wrote the first seven. The late triumvirate seemed to write themselves.
"More Blood, More Tracks" gives you a formative glimpse of where Dylan was going. These songs are bitter, sorrowful, violent and critical. However, in the outtakes collected here, you get to listen to Dylan fine tune his lyricism and phrasing.
The single CD version gives you a more restless Dylan slowing down "Tangled Up In Blue" to find its majesty and learning to interlace the story of "Lily, Rosemary and The Jack of Hearts."
The deluxe package gives you every take in chronological order from sessions in New York and Minneapolis.
ROSEANNE CASH
She Remembers Everything
[LP/CD](Blue Note)
On her first album in four years, Cash works hardest to regain the woman's place in this modern world.
These are songs of strife ("8 Gods of Harlem" with Kris Kristofferson and Elvis Costello") and struggle ("The Only Thing Worth Fighting For" with Colin Meloy).
Like "The River and The Thread," Cash continues to grow more literary in her writing. However, these songs are not necessarily her biography – she writes best ("Crossing To Jerusalem") in a universal voice.
J.D. McPherson
SOCKS
[LP/CD](New West)
The rockabilly swinger decides to blow the dust off of his favorite Christmas albums and fashion one like you might see in the days of yore. He sets aside the standards and favorites for the others, and writes 11 new songs where Santa gets fat ("Hey, Skinny Santa!") and we all get something we don't want under the tree.
