I’m not sure I agree with NPR music critic Ken Tucker that Bob Dylan’s voice sounding awful on his new Christmas album is bullshit criticism. Frankly, I too find the sorts of songs where Dylan can make his, well, limited vocal range work are many. But that collection does not include most traditional Christmas songs, which require a much stronger set of pipes. Judging from the clips interspersed between Mr. Tucker’s review, unless the entire album is actually intended as a joke, I’m not going to be buying.
But I do appreciate Mr. Tucker’s describing Dylan’s “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” as sounding “more like a threat than a promise.” So maybe, for charity, I ought to give Christmas in the Heart a try.
Speaking as a true Dylan fan, it’s true that his voice today is more of an acquired taste than it used to be — maybe not the best for traditional Christmas material. That being said, 1) all royalties from sales of the album are going to charities that help feed the needy 2) “Must Be Santa” is an awesome Christmas song and is a real highlight on the album. You can listen to it free at http://www.bobdylan.com and 3) I’ve always felt Christmas needed a weathered, growling representative (besides Santa).
Comment by desarnoc — November 2, 2009 @ 7:29 pm