Bob Dylan's Modern Times, a new Masterpiece?

Dylan deliberately took control of the sonic production of Modern Times as he rebels against modern CD and digital - he may be a great artist but IMHO his sound engineering skills are not up to scratch of other pros. I guess his criticisms of CD and digital are also an indirect attack on Daniel Lanois who was behind the arty and atmospheric sound of TOOM and Oh Mercy (which were both very successful albums).

How anybody could make the assumption that Dylan's comments were an indirect attack on Lanois is beyond me.

Why use Lanois again if he hated his sound so much?

Dylan also produced Love And Theft the album before MT; this is not a new approach for Dylan on Modern Times.

It was only a matter of time before this became a "sound quality" Audiophile pissing contest.
:-)

I echo Ben's sentiments. I have both the CD and the vinyl. The sound is certainly better on the LP. I only own the CD because my wife hates burned CD's. I don't give a rats ass if the mix is muddy or the LP was stored on a hard drive. The vinyl certainly sounds more musically compelling. I use a Rega P-25 with a new Denon 103. The performance is the main thing. If you desire better sonics then dig out your Diana Krall or Holly Cole lp's.

I agree with Ben that it is a real stretch to to interpret any of Dylan's comments as a personal attack on Lanois.

Frankly, I like quite a bit of the performance on MT, but I'm not so sure that it is a "masterpiece". This, of course, is entirely subjective and we can argue this until the cows come home.

What is not subjective, in my opinion, is the sound quality, and, as far as I'm concerned (I have the vinyl), that's fair game both within the context of this thread and Dylan's recent comments about sound quality. When someone states that the "production" is masterful, that's simply a load of crap. It's a mediocre to slightly above mediocre sounding recording at best as much as I might like the performance; it doesn't mean I can't appreciate the performance (I've got lots of great music that's not particularly well recorded). But if Bob is going to complain that most recent music sounds crappy, he's going to be fair game when it comes to criticism of the sound quality, particularly if he's producing it himself. I don't see that as an audiophile pissing match, but maybe Ben is just pulling our legs.

There's no doubt in my mind that if Joe Harley at Audioquest had done this record it would have sounded a ton better. If that makes me a Diana Krall or Holly Cole lover, so be it.

Hdm and Ben,

I agree with your criticisms, no doubt my guess went way too far. A better wording might be "An verbal attack on the way modern music sounds and at the same time to take control of the sound production suggests a certain dissatisfaction with what was done previously."

Anyone feel that the sound on the MT album is in anyway similar to the Johnny Cash sound? (not the voice just the way the instruments are mixed with the vocals...just a thought)