Track Listing

1. Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum
2. Mississippi
3. Summer Days
4. Bye And Bye
5. Lonesome Day Blues
6. Floater (Too Much To Ask)
7. High Water (for Charlie Patton)
8. Moonlight
9. Honest With Me
10. Po' Boy
11. Cry A While
12. Sugar Baby

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #61070 in Music
• Released on: 2001-09-10
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
Love and Theft is Bob Dylan's most focused, well-played collection since 1989's Oh Mercy, another Daniel Lanois production. One listen to the fade-in of the opener "Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum" and it's clear that all Dylan's roadwork has shaped him and his band (including guitarist Charlie Sexton) into a mighty musical weapon. And while his craggy howl continues to resonate, it's the songs here that astonish. A sturdy mid-tempo melody makes "Mississippi" the equal of the best numbers on Time Out of Mind, which it was actually written for. He convincingly puts over an R&B swing (yes, swing) number "Summer Days". "Honest with Me" ("I'm not sorry for nuthin' I've done / I'm glad I fight, I only wished we'd won") is a driving rocker that packs a genuine punch. And the light, lounge-like "Bye and Bye" and the southland ramble "Floater (Too Much to Ask)" show extraordinary confidence. He's labelled these songs "blues-based", but in typical Dylan fashion what would promise to be the most overtly bluesy number here--"High Water (for Charlie Patton)"--sounds like a banjo-based gunfighter ballad. But then that's this artist's gift: confounding expectations. --Robert Baird

CD Description
'Love And Theft' is Bob Dylan's 43rd album and follows on from his 1997 release 'Time Out Of Mind'. A miriad of musicalstyles which veer from Delta blues to folk, roots, country and rockabilly. Includes 'Things Have Changed' from the 'Wonder Boys' soundtrack and 'Mississippi', an outtake from 'Time Out Of Mind' which has been re-recorded.

Customer Reviews

Back on the Tracks
Bob is back, just when we thought it was impossible to produce two decent albums in a row. The signs were all good, his current touring band, who provide the backing, are stunning in their technique, sensitivity and versatility. His last album and academy award-winning single Things Have Changed were lauded by critics and returned Dylan to the charts. The only fear with Mr Zimmerman is, despite all the odds in his favor, he was just as likely to produce a stinker as a masterpieces. Fortunately, he opted for the latter.

This is a back-to-basics album produced with clarity by Mr. Dylan himself in the guise of Jack Frost. The arrangements are more song-focused than Daniel Lanois' atmospheric production on Time Out of Mind, a move that suits these rootsy up-beat songs, which are peppered with surreal, playful, jokes and literary and Biblical allusions.

Musically, this is a journey through the 'Old Weird' America last heard on the Basement Tapes, with splashes good ole' country music of the Nashville Skyline model and flourishes of Chicago electric blues and swing ballads.

The first indication of the penchant for latter of these musical forms was Bob's resurrection of If Dogs Run Free and the similarly jazzy re-invention of Time out of Mind's Trying To Get To Heaven, both recently performed in concert. Dylan sings jazz, nice.

Each of the 12 songs are minor gems and a few are true classics destined to stand alongside A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall, Tangled Up in Blue, Blind Willie McTell, Man in the Long Black Coat and Its Not Dark Yet.

Mississippi is a re-worked song left off the last album because of musical differences with the producer. From the evidence here, Bob was right to seek a more straightforward reading of the track. It has a simple but engaging melody and some evocative lyrics that need to be heard clearly.

High Water evokes Dylan's own Crash on the Levee (Down in the Flood) and has an epic sweep of Old Testament proportions. Sugar Baby is the song Time Out of Mind-lovers will embrace as it shares that album's gloom and soul searching with a pinch of the venom of songs like Idiot Wind and Positively 4th Street.

Still, there is much to enjoy in the 'lesser' tracks, such as the hard-rocking Lonesome Day Blues, the beautiful fiddle playing on Floater (Too Much To Ask), the subtle humor of Po' Boy and Dylan-as-crooner on the sweet love-song Moonlight.

Whilst it may never re-capture the legendary status accorded to his Sixties albums, this is an album of mature music from an old man unafraid to admit his irrelevance to modern music and happy to carry on forging his own inimitable route.

He told us the answer is blowing in the wind. On Moonlight he states 'the wind has blown', and asks 'Won't you meet me out in the moonlight alone?'. The sensible answer to that is 'Yes, Bob, so long as you bring your guitar...

Listen to this Great Album Over and Over...
When the impartial listener firsts put on Love and Theft they are struck by the gravel growl that is Dylan's voice. But far from the "he can't sing" response continually levelled since his hey-day, the listener is presented by a perfect sound for the great songs. On first listening you are struck by certain songs - "Highwater", "Mississippi" and "Sugar Baby" are all establishing themselves as all-time Dylan top songs. Then on second listening you are charmed by the lyricism, humour, clever enunciation. By the third listen you (and in my case your family) are dancing around the room.

Grammys 2002? I damn well hope so!

Absolute Joy
"Blood on the Tracks" is one of my favourite albums, but "Love and Theft" comes close. It has the classic hallmarks of growling vocals, intelligent and sensitive lyrics that couldn't be sung by anyone else and subtle melodies that you'll be humming for days. There's nothing clever about the production or the music; it's just simple, warm songs played by exceptional musicians. My only complaint is that one or two songs are dragged out, but overall it's refreshing to hear such a simple and enjoyable CD. Album of the year so far -I haven't stopped listening to it since I bought it.