Bob Dylan - Coll Oh Mercy Time Out of Mind Love Theft (33 tracks) +Album Reviews

Expanding on the packaging...

If | Ohio | 08/22/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I guess to make this a review I've gotta tell you the CDs are worth owning. Oh Mercy has an excellent mood and feel, but I guess I'm the only one who thinks some of the songs are mediocre-ish or a little forced, but the feel enhances them all. Time Out Of Mind keeps a lot of that mood but just isn't influenced as much by it musically, but still leaves you with that same sweet melancholy feeling. "Love And Theft" is called Bob's best by a lot of people and definately has great music and is certainly his most diverse stylistically since New Morning and is even moreso. And Bob thinks he's lost it...

But on the packaging: as Magnus Eisengrim said it is a book styled box made of cardboard and molded plastic. Upon opening the three CDs are placed in trays and in the fourth space fits the booklets for the three albums. All are the standard CDs, Oh Mercy is the reissued version the label leads me to believe, but not the SACD. I owned Time Out Of Mind and "Love And Theft"'s standard issues, so I can very securely say that all is missing from them in this package is the back insert of the CD case, both have transparent trays that you can see through for a picture underneath and it is to be assumed the Oh Mercy package had the same thing. As I said this set doesn't have these, but most people probably won't care a lot seeing as all there are is a couple pictures and the track list and general fans probably won't feel incomplete without them.

So this set is probably more for collectability than the jewel case edition, but most who will be buying this edition will be collectors. But what really matters anyway is the music, so any way you'll have these albums. If you've got an SACD player, don't buy this though, because, as I said, these aren't SACDs and Oh Mercy and "Love and Theft" are both available on SACD. Let's hope Time Out Of Mind will become available on it, because that is an album that deserves a 5.1 mix.

By the way, at Best Buy I saw sets of this style of Willie Nelson, and some other people I don't recall right now, and I guess as Magnus said, Black Sabbath."

Dylan Just Keeps Getting Better

Tiffany Ann | Black Diamond Bay | 04/02/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

""Oh Mercy" goes Straight to the Soul. It had been a long time since Dylan released an album of original material. A lot of his fans probably thought he was washed up, consigned to singing gospel flavored songs with girl backup singers (which he does quite well by the way) and re-singing his old material, but Dylan proved them wrong with this record. In fact most of the time he surprises, like with this record. There is no denying "Oh Mercy" is a masterpiece. It's quiet and subtle, not at all like the rocker "Infidels" was. For me this record reminds me a lot of "Blood on the Tracks" with it's personal songs. However, there are also songs about the social conditions of the day, delivered in only the way Bob Dylan can deliver them, understated, but straight to the soul.

Riddles and Enigmas Abound in "Time Out of Mind." Eight years since "Oh Mercy," and once again Bob Dylan calls on Daniel Lanois to produce a record. This one wins a Grammy and shows the world Bob Dylan is still a force to be reckoned with. This is an eerie, kind of psychedelic and very dark record. Dylan's voice even sounds dark, as dark and bare as the lyrics. Songs of no hope and a lot of hope, dreary, dank, dark, but seemingly always with a ray of hope shining through. "It's not dark yet, but it's getting there." Yeah, it's getting there. Riddles and enigmas abound in this record that won a Grammy and if you give it a listen, you'll find Bob Dylan's riddles both easy and impossible to decipher, but such is the nature of the man.

"Love and Theft" was Worth the Wait. I guess Bob Dylan is approaching half a century in the music making business, forty years or so when this record came out. That's a long time from that first album of just him and his guitar singing those protest songs. A long time from protest ballads, rock songs, gospel songs, uplifting and dark songs to this, a rollicking, frolicking record of songs that will make you laugh and dance and cry for joy. Maybe it took forty years to get to here, but it was worth it. The music on this record is tight and good, but then Dylan had been playing with this band during a zillion and one concerts on his Never Ending Tour, so it's not surprising. The songs are just plain fun and harken back to an age much more innocent. This is a wonderful record. I've played my CD hundreds of times, have the record on my iPod. It puts a smile on my face and that is just about as grand a compliment one can give a piece of music."

Some of Bob Dylan's Best Work

Danielle Lane | Horseshoe, North Carolina | 04/03/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"It seems to me that Bob Dylan is always stretching forward, while reaching toward the past. Like a man in a hurricane, he swirls toward an uncertain future like a the shooting star he sings about and Jack London wrote about, but he tries, sometimes in vain, to hold on to his past, his roots, like he does so well here with songs on "Oh Mercy" like "Political World" and "Man in a Long Black Coat." These are songs fans of Bob Dylan's early work might well like. Songs like "Shooting Star", "Where Teardrops Fall" and "What Good Am I?" seem to come right from the heart. The quiet and understated effect of Daniel Lanois' production, which will be even more understated in "Time Out of Mind", are simply haunting to say the least. Something like thirty years into his career at this point and this is one of his best records yet. But what is simply amazing is that there are more to come.

Sometimes one has to wonder if Bob Dylan has a frog caught in his throat. The big kind you find in the tropics, those frogs that croak all night long, singing their songs of sadness and despair. Their dark songs, songs about a place you don't want to go, but can't help going. That's what you'll find on "Time Out of Mind." You can almost feel Dylan's pain as he croaks out the word to "It's Not Dark Yet." This is almost as revealing about Dylan's personal trials and travails as "Blood on the Tracks," a deeply personal look at the man through his music. That is one thing about Bob Dylan, he puts it all out there for you to either accept or reject, but like it or not, his music is real and this record is one of his best.

Unlike the very dark, Grammy winning "Time Out of Mind" Dylan's last album of original material, "Love and Theft" is a record full of fun songs that takes you back to the Fifties, maybe the Forties even. Listen to "Summer Days." If that doesn't make you want to get up and swing, you've got lead in your feet. This whole record has sort of a honky tonk feel to it. It's just simply fabulous. Dylan is older, but he's better. He still has that frog in his throat we've all come to know and love. He's sporting a Boston Blackie Mustache, has a twinkle in his eye and kind of looks like that guy you've seen playing the piano in so many saloons in so many black and white westerns and he just plain sounds like a song and dance man and gosh, I love this record. I guess I already said that."

Three Very Personal Records

Sara Hackett | from the Darkside | 04/03/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Bob Dylan and Daniel Lanois work better together, it seems to me, then many of the other people Dylan has worked with. I certainly like the sound of "Oh Mercy" better than the stuff Dylan did with Tom Petty, though I like that stuff too. I actually like this record as much as I like "Blood on the Tracks" and often have both of them in my CD changer at the same time (which by the way I never set at random play with a Bob Dylan record, because Dylan records were meant to be played in their entirety, the way Dylan presented them). For me, this record fits nicely between "Tracks" and "Time out of Mind." Sure he did some great stuff in between, but it's these personal songs like "What Good Am I?" that I like so much and, of course, the way Bob Dylan tells a story. There is nobody better.

It seems like Dylan's voice has changed when you listen to "Time Out of Mind, but that's not unusual. His voice changes a lot from record to record, but it's always recognizably, thoroughly Dylan. The album is a bit dark and you can especially see that in the excellent "Love Sick" and "Not Dark Yet," but you can see some optimism, some hope in the song too. There is sort of a bluesy feel to this record that carries over to "Love and Theft," you know, kind of a sadness in these songs that are oh so honest they make your heart ache. This is both a very depressing and very inspiring record and only Bob Dylan could get away with something like that. Highly recommended, very highly recommended.

"Moonlight" is my favorite song on "Love and Theft record that is full of my favorite Bob Dylan songs. Just imagine a honky tonking riverboat gambler with a guitar and a touch of irony in his voice and you have the master who comes up with such words, like "Doctor, lawyer indian chief, it takes a thief to catch a thief, and who does the bell toll for, love, it tolls for you and me." Old words mingled with new words which captures the essence of this album, old style infused with a touch of today. Still, I imagine someone fifty or sixty years ago, hearing this record for the first time, from the whimsical" Tweedle Dee" to the dirgle like "Sugar Baby" that is so reminiscent of "Dark Eyes" the song that closes "Empire Burlesque, would recognize Bob Dylan as a contemporary. "Love is pleasing, love is teasing, love's not an evil thing." What great lyrics there are on this record you'll never be able to get out of your mind. "It takes a thief to catch a thief," and Bob Dylan must be a thief, because he sure caught me."

Search - Bob Dylan :: Coll: Oh Mercy / Time Out of Mind / Love & Theft

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