Chimpomatic | Various Artists Review - I'm Not There [Music From The Motion Picture] - 2007

As a soundtrack for his forthcoming Bob Dylan movie I'm Not There, director Todd Haynes has assembled an impressive array of musicians young and old to provide cover versions and re-workings of their favourite Dylan tracks.

Much like the Wylde Rattz project for Hayne's previous rock biopic Velvet Goldmine, supergroup "The Million Dollar Bashers" (featuring Lee Ranaldo, Steve Shelley, Nels Cline and Tom Verlaine among others) back many of the singers, and were put together to bring some cohesiveness to the album. As a cohesive album however, I'm Not There fails conclusively. Clocking in at a whopping 160 minutes, the jam-packed double CD is simply far too long - eclipsing the sprawling White Album and making Red Hot Chili Pepper's 2006 opus Stadium Arcadium seem like a couple of bonus tracks.

Taken as a collection of individual tracks however, the album provides a wealth of ammo for the mixtape masses with more than a few silver bullets in the arsenal. With such great material in the hands of these artists it would have been a tragedy for this album to be a faliure, but cover songs have always been a hit or miss affair - with the artists often taking one of two methods of attack when approaching the material. The most effective method here seems to be the straightforward approach, letting the bands own sound soak through the material. Sonic Youth's understated cover of I'm Not there is a highlight, as are Steven Malkmus' multiple contributions adding only a few restrained theatrics to produce some of his best work.

Black Keys provide one successful modernisation with their fuzz metal version of The Wicked Messenger, but The Hold Steady's version of Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window tries too hard to fit Dylan's square song into the band's story-telling style of a round hole. Not to mention Sufjan Steven's overblown theatrics, which make Ring Them Bells (what else?) smugly saccharine. Eddie Vedder's All Along The Watchtower would make for a live concert highlight, but it sounds pretty straightforward here - as does Cat Power's solid, but karaoke-like cover of Stuck Inside of Mobile - following Dylan's version down to the tiniest vocal shift, in a way that even he refuses to do in his live show.

Some minor disappointments come from artists who have covered Dylan's work so well previously - such as Pearl Jam's version of Masters Of War or Jim James' superb Billy 4. Jim James covers Goin' To Acapulco on this album, which is a mild let-down when My Morning Jacket could have done a blistering version of something like Hurricane - particularly after they so perfectly blended their own heavy rocking style into Freebird in the woeful Elizabethtown movie.

For all of this, it's the breadth of Dylan's songwriting that is the star of the show - with 70's cowboy-era Dylan coming out particularly well. Calexico's multiple contribution's provide much of that, as do Los Lobos' spirited break for the border with Billy 1. It's when the musicians' really grasp the spirit of the songs that things really work - and while Cat Power's uninspired rendering illustrates Dylan's occasionally drawn out verses, John Doe's version of Pressing On and Ramblin' Jack Elliot's guitar picking on Tom Thumb's Blues provide a celebration of the music itself, rather than just the lyrics.

34 tracks picked from Dylan's catalogue of literally hundreds is in itself quite an achievement, resulting in an album so dense that it's taken me an extra week just to get to grips with it all. If it was actual Dylan versions it might be up their with Mothership in this year's best of (disqualified on a best-of technicality). And in fact, since hearing this album I have drawn up such a playlist, which is working out nicely.

Links

IMDB
Wikipedia
MySpace

News

Reviews

Articles

Surveillance

Facebook

Add your comments

b.o.b. 7.1

good work - it's such a long haul, can't quite understand why they've gone for so many tunes - there's definitely a cull necessary to make this manageable. much as i hate to admit it, i've almost had enough dylan over the last few years what with this, the bootleg series, the scorsese doc, the countless books etc etc... almost. might have a break for a few months.

did quite like the cat power one though; maybe i just dig her voice

20th Nov 2007 4:57pm

CSF

Jeff Tweedy and Yo La Tengo deserve a mention for definite highlights, but I could have gone on forever with this is good, that wasn't the best - so here's the full list:

1. "All Along the Watchtower," - Eddie Vedder and the Million Dollar Bashers
2. "I'm Not There," Sonic Youth
3. "Goin' To Acapulco," Jim James and Calexico
4. "Tombstone Blues," Richie Havens
5. "Ballad of a Thin Man," Stephen Malkmus and the Million Dollar Bashers
6. "Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again," Cat Power
7. "Pressing On," John Doe
8. "Fourth Time Around," Yo La Tengo
9. "Dark Eyes," Iron & Wine and Calexico
10. "Highway 61 Revisited," Karen O and the Million Dollar Bashers
11. "One More Cup of Coffee," Roger McGuinn and Calexico
12. "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll," Mason Jennings
13. "Billy," Los Lobos
14. "Simple Twist of Fate," Jeff Tweedy
15. "The Man in the Long Black Coat," Mark Lanegan
16. "Se�or (Tales of Yankee Power)," Willie Nelson and Calexico

1. "As I Went Out One Morning," Mira Billotte
2. "Can't Leave Her Behind," Stephen Malkmus and Lee Ranaldo
3. "Ring Them Bells," Sufjan Stevens
4. "Just Like a Woman," Charlotte Gainsbourg and Calexico
5. "Mama You've Been on My Mind" / "A Fraction of Last Thoughts on Woody Guthrie," Jack Johnson
6. "I Wanna Be Your Lover," Yo La Tengo
7. "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere," Glen Hansard and Mark�ta Irglov�
8. "Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window?," The Hold Steady
9. "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues," Ramblin' Jack Elliott
10. "Wicked Messenger," The Black Keys
11. "Cold Irons Bound," Tom Verlaine and the Million Dollar Bashers
12. "The Times They Are a-Changin'," Mason Jennings
13. "Maggie's Farm," Stephen Malkmus and the Million Dollar Bashers
14. "When the Ship Comes In," Marcus Carl Franklin
15. "Moonshiner," Bob Forrest
16. "I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine," John Doe
17. "Knockin' on Heaven's Door," Antony & the Johnsons
18. "I'm Not There," Bob Dylan