Search - :: "Love and Theft" (Limited Edition)

Cassandra L. from KENDALL, NY
Reviewed on 6/2/2010...

I have only read about Bob Dylan. His music is very different.

Nothing less than a masterpiece

Denny Angelle | Richmond, Texas United States | 09/11/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"With this latest, mighty effort Bob Dylan blows away all the pretenders who have been populating the upper reaches of the "Billboard" charts and selling us sham pop music. Now THIS is real music -- it would be a shame if only Dylan fanatics and old fogies are the only ones to listen.On first spin, "Love and Theft" seems like a spiritual cousin to the top-selling soundtrack of "O Brother Where Art Thou?" in that they both concern themselves with "old-timey" but mostly American forms of music. Dylan offers blues ruminations and Tin Pan Alley tunes and -- driving the toughest, tightest band he's fielded in years -- takes us on a whirlwind tour of American musical styles with pit stops along Highway 61 and Desolation Row.This album is so rich and deep it's hard to single out one tune. "Mississippi," a mid-tempo meditation, wouldn't have been out of place on "Time Out of Mind." "Honest With Me" rocks like the old days, and "Summer Days" is a slap of honest-to-gosh rockabilly.
And don't be fooled by the somber subject matter of Dylan's recent work -- "Love and Theft" is the funniest Dylan album ever. "Po'Boy" even has a sort of knock-knock joke.Some copies come with a second CD, with two previously unreleased early Dylan songs. "I Was Young When I Left Home," cut in 1961, is Bob's version of an old folk song and the other tune is a somber, quietly sung alternate take of "The Times They Are A' Changin'." I get a weird feeling listening to this song, today (the day of the CD's release) while watching the news from New York and Washington. Dylan has always been rather prescient, but ...In short, this is classy, absolutely assured rock music from the form's greatest practitioner. "Love and Theft" is assuredly the year's best CD. Highly recommended."

Yes, this is Dylan painting his "newest" Masterpiece

Ian C. Cunningham | OZ, United States | 09/11/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"As a person who came to Bob Dylan's music later than some. It has now been 20 years + for me. I own everything he's released. Some I dislike and/or are bemused by what I heard...at first listening.
Thus, was not the case with "Love and Theft".
Bob's most riveting and finest "produced" work in the past 20+ years has been arguably through the creative sonic visual genius of Daniel Lanois. These albums, "Oh Mercy" and "Time out of Mind" resulted in a remarkable body of subsequent performances with again, arguably the best band Bob Dylan has ever shared a stage with.
This band and Bob's stellar songwriting and production work (yes folks, Jack Frost is Bob Dylan)has made this Bob Dylan's own individual vision fulfilled or at the very least tapped into. A development and sound that is a continuing Pheonix in Bob's career, This is Bob Dylan's Masterpiece that he spoke of that first time in the basement in Saugerties, NY.
I believe after several listening's into "Love and Theft". Fans, New and Old will be moved for as long as anyone has been since they first heard Subterranean Homesick Blues.
As a Bonus, in this Special edition you get two song, One I had only heard Bob sing on tape in a Hotel Room in 1961 as an import. It is a beautiful piece of Bob interpretation.
Times they are a-changin'(alternate version) is like an old friend with a slightly different vibe but, with no loss to it's greatness of idea, arrangement and performance.
Enjoy this music from a man who knows the truth's and lived a life. Many lives really. He is so deep rooted in being human and to living in the present. This is Bob Dylan. In his most accomplished and contemporary reinvention."