"Bob Dylan - Empire Burlesque"

I was apprehensive about purchasing this album. I knew going in that its production was too slick, too dated; I knew the songs weren't his best, that he didn't give it his best effort throughout. I knew all this, and I bought the album anyway. But hey, for less than $10, it was worth a shot, right?

And turns out that I was about half right. Yeah, the production is dated and very state of the art (for a given 1985 value of "state of the art"), but the songs are some of the strongest he'd written in years.

The production really only overshadows the songs on a couple of tracks, when synthesizers, drum machines, and synth horns overwhelm what should be very straightforward tunes. Dylan wrote some beautiful melodies for these songs, and it's a shame to see them washed out with electronic drums and thing guitar sound. He had a couple of different bands for the project--some of the songs were recorded with the band from Infidels (sans Mark Knopfler), and some were recorded with various members of the Heartbreakers (Mike Campbell, Benmont Tench, and Howie Epstein). There are some great guitar licks in here, and it's really too bad that the guitars are so buried in the mix. The songs are also marred by the backup singers (moreso than anything on Street Legal), with the exception of "I'll Remember You."

Lyrically, Dylan is in fine form on this album. It's as strong--if not stronger--as anything on Infidels, and seems in many ways to be an extension of the style from that record. His phrases are rife with ambiguity and double meaning, full of the swirling imagery with which Dylan populated his best songs.

One gets the feeling listening to this album that, had it been made a decade earlier or a decade later, it would have been a near-masterpiece. As it stands, the album is a flawed effort. Dylan sounds like he's still trying to be a contemporary rock star, but the effort is rather flat. Some four years later, he would begin to shed this act, working instead towards being an elder statesman of rock, crafting solid albums like Oh Mercy and Time out of Mind. But Empire Burlesque stands as a glitzy, over-produced example of Dylan attempting to remain cutting edge and contemporary, and instead coming off as trying much too hard.

~chuck

Song of the Moment: Bob Dylan, "Trust Yourself"