Dylan at Xmas
Bob Dylan is clearly one of the most respected members of the music community. That cannot be denied. That being said, however, he will have a lot of problems trying to get people to buy his new Christmas album, especially if all the reviewers are as upset as Jim DeRogatis of the Chicago Sun-Times. He says that Dylan has fallen into schmaltzy style in this one, but that his own delivery doesn’t measure up to that. If it were consistent, that would be one thing, but the charge is that his own singing doesn’t let it become beautiful anymore. One big example is that his “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” sounds more like a threat than a promise to a loved one. And his Latin isn’t that good either. But Dylan is sounding good onstage, so we can’t expect everything from a man at this point in his career.