Product Description

Following the critical and commercial drubbing that SELF PORTRAIT received, Dylan returned to form with NEW MORNING. With its sepia-coloured cover photo of a somewhat rabbinical-looking Dylan, this is a gentle, eclectic album in which the artist celebrates married life and living in the country. Hesings about domestic bliss on "The Man in Me" and of the simple joy of being called 'pa' by his kids on "Sign in the Window". This was perhaps the last time that Dylan would release a collection of songs so free of his trademark bile. "If Not For You", for example, is gently, poetically romantic.
Much of the music bears some of the pastoral flavour of NASHVILLE SKYLINE. However the title track and the slide guitar-driven "One More Weekend" really rock. Elsewhere there aremoments of quiet beauty: the eloquent "Time Passes Slowly" and the lilting, waltz-time "Winterlude". Dylan can even be heard enjoying himself in "If Dogs Run Free", which finds him uttering comical Beat-style jazz rhymes over scat singing.NEW MORNING ends with "Father of Night", a straightforward benediction that foreshadows some the religious themes that would follow later in the decade.

Track Listing

1. If Not For You
2. Day Of The Locusts
3. Time Passes Slowly
4. Went To See The Gypsy
5. Winterlude
6. If Dogs Run Free
7. New Morning
8. Sign In The Window
9. One More Weekend
10. Man In Me
11. Three Angels
12. Father Of Night

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #31522 in Music
• Released on: 1994-01-31
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Import

Customer Reviews

Pleasant, but that's not enough
With two good songs (New Morning and If Not For You), some ordinary ones and some truly dreadful, had this album been released by A. N. Other-Countrysinger it would have sunk without trace. It only sells, and merits mention, as it is part of the works of one of the twentieth century's towering geniuses. No doubt some will have bought it at an emotionally important time of their lives and may still find warm resonances here, but the rest of us need to see this in the light of his truly great work. Likening this album to Blonde on Blonde or Highway 61 Revisited is meaningless. They were ground breaking, genre-altering albums that have informed (and overshadowed) rock ever since. This is not the 'return to form' so beloved of Dylan reviewers (they are invariably wrong - nothing is a surer synonym for 'rubbish') but the beginning of thirty sterile years that produced almost nothing of merit.

For collectors and ageing hippies only.

A Good, Listenable Album
I'm a Dylan fan, although I don't own, or have even listened to, many of his albums. My favourite albums are Highway 61 Revisited; Blonde on Blonde; Live at the `Albert Hall' 1966 and the Basement Tapes.

This record was released soon after `Self Portrait' and was welcomed at the time as a return to form. It was the last Dylan album until Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid and Planet Waves.

Overall, it has some of the `country' (roots rather than than 'Stand by Your Man') feel of John Wesley Harding, with some nice electric soft rock songs such as Went to See the Gypsy (which features uncredited guitar from George Harrison) and One More Weekend. Dylan's voice is closer to Blonde on Blonde than Nashville Skyline and the record is the better for it.

If you like any or all of JWH, the Basement Tapes, Nashville Skyline or Self-Portrait, you'll like this.

The most underated Dylan album
This great album should be classed and bought in the same scale as Blonde on Blonde,Highway 61 Revisited et cetera.
THe term to describe it is warm and welcoming, Such as the wonderful Day of the Locusts and New Morning. These are the songs which are undoubtedly some of his best work. But the other experimental songs such as Three Angels and Winterlude get better each time I listened to them. The whole atmosphere is easy going and optimistic .
If ever you are feeling slightly depressed, listen to this album, over and over again.