Amazon.co.uk allows you to pay for your items in your local currency. Restrictions apply. Learn More. |
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
Track Listings
| 1. Political World |
| 2. Where Teardrops Fall |
| 3. Everything Is Broken |
| 4. Ring Them Bells |
| 5. Man In The Long Black Coat |
| 6. Most Of The Time |
| 7. What Good Am I? |
| 8. Disease Of Conceit |
| 9. What Was It You Wanted |
| 10. Shooting Star |
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
The 1980s was a particularly shifting, uncertain decade for Bob Dylan's creative voice but he capped it off with his first album of all-original material in several years and his best since Infidels. A lot of the credit for Oh Mercy's distinctive appeal has been given to producer-musician Daniel Lanois (who backs Dylan on all but one cut), and there's no denying the effect of his magnetic, fog-thick sound sculpturing here. Overlays of lap steel, dobro and mercy keys along with a slithering subterranean bass evoke a complete sonic climate, and the synergy between Lanois and Dylan would have a huge payoff with 1997's devastating Time Out of Mind. But however tightly produced, Oh Mercy also displays Dylan at the peak of his song-writing craft, fracturing words and phrases for the things-fall-apart jeremiads of "Political World" and "Everything Is Broken" and stringing images together for the noirish ballad "Man in the Long Black Coat". There's the usual dichotomy between Dylan's slashing accusatory mode ("What Was It You Wanted") and the self-effacement of "What Good Am I?" Aside from the miscalculated, sappy "Where Teardrops Fall" (the disc's sore thumb), this album has the classic staying power of Dylan's finest efforts. --Thomas May
Product Description
2003 REMASTER of the Daniel Lanois produced 1989 album!
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
17 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
An Dylan 80's album that wasn't a disaster, and better than anything we could have expected from his 80's recording morass. Hurrah !
It has brilliant production by Lanois and some truly wonderful Dylan tracks, "Shooting Star", "..Long Black Coat","Most of the Time", "..Broken..." and "..Bells.." would all make any sensible Best of Compilation of his last 25 years.
It could have been an a bona fida classic if "Dignity" and "Series of Dreams" had not inextricably been dropped.
Great singing, minimalist instrumentation, great melodies, great hook lines, moody and atmospheric. File between "Desire" and "Street Legal". A real treat.
It has brilliant production by Lanois and some truly wonderful Dylan tracks, "Shooting Star", "..Long Black Coat","Most of the Time", "..Broken..." and "..Bells.." would all make any sensible Best of Compilation of his last 25 years.
It could have been an a bona fida classic if "Dignity" and "Series of Dreams" had not inextricably been dropped.
Great singing, minimalist instrumentation, great melodies, great hook lines, moody and atmospheric. File between "Desire" and "Street Legal". A real treat.
23 of 24 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
You can't avoid it - even Bob Dylan must admit, that after the heady second peak of Blood On The Tracks and the stellar follow-up Desire, things went downhill. Slow Train Coming deserves better than it gets, but the ensuing decade, the eighties was utterly wretched for Dylan - and his nineties weren't much better until 1997.
However, amidst all the Christian hoo-ha and bleating about writers' block, is Oh Mercy, a curiosity of an album, a diamond in the rough that was the eighties.
Regarded at the time as a return to form, Oh Mercy isn't quite on a par with, say, Highway 61 Revisited or the other Dylan classic albums, but it is certainly a fair work.
Fairly short for Dylan and with not nearly as much verbal complication as he was known for - one song is even called 'Political World,' which tells you plenty - the album, musically is very relaxing. Put together entirely at night, this is a record made in the twilight of the day, in the twilight of a man's life, to be listened to as such. The sparse arrangements feature delay-ridden harmonicas and twittering lead guitars, but nothing can smother Dylan's voice and above all his songs.
'Political World' is an opener, with a funny oompah-oompah rhythm and a fairly blatant lyric; it's enjoyable. 'What Was It You Wanted' sounds like a musical interpretation of a swamp, and when he utters the words 'what was it you wanted?/I'm not keeping score,' I almost guarantee a chill will go through you. Furthermore, 'Everything Is Broken' shows Dylan making the kind of knockabout blues that would lend his last studio album to date a great deal of charm.
Oh Mercy is too often overlooked. Not quite a classic, it is well worth several listens, and is a delightful record.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
After a dry decade or so, Mr Zimmerman delivered this stone-cold but classy slab of genius.
Daniel Lanois' excellent production adds a swamp-like mist over 10 fine songs.
Something of a prelude to 1997's excellent "Time Out Of Mind", Dylan here is cynical and sound ("Political World"), curiously vulnerable ("Most Of The Time") and evocative "Man In The Long Black Coat."
A Dylan album that deserves to be owned and listened to repeatedly.
Daniel Lanois' excellent production adds a swamp-like mist over 10 fine songs.
Something of a prelude to 1997's excellent "Time Out Of Mind", Dylan here is cynical and sound ("Political World"), curiously vulnerable ("Most Of The Time") and evocative "Man In The Long Black Coat."
A Dylan album that deserves to be owned and listened to repeatedly.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Hallelujah!!!
After five years of sub-par product, Oh Mercy has Dylan throwing over a few tables, shaking off cobwebs, and giving us what for. Read more
Published 3 months ago by street-legal
Nice work
There are great songs in this CD.
The mood is a little bit "I'm kinda down", but it's still a pleasure to hear the songs again. Read more
The mood is a little bit "I'm kinda down", but it's still a pleasure to hear the songs again. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Marcio Hegenberg
A great discovery
I bought this because it had on it a track I wanted, but did not know the album. It's a great discovery, and a really good addition to a Dylan collection for any Dylan fan. Read more
Published 9 months ago by MARINA URQUIDI
Staying on the outside
I don't have this problem which rock critics seem to have re Dylan albums.
I like all the 80s albums as much as the other 2 decades worth though the first 4 would be low down... Read more
I like all the 80s albums as much as the other 2 decades worth though the first 4 would be low down... Read more
Published 9 months ago by Richard
A Masterpiece of Dylan AND Lanois
Oh Mercy is an album that go straight in to your hearth and stay there forever!! One of the reasons for that this album has become an outstanding album is in my opinion that the... Read more
Published 10 months ago by Cosmomind
Atmospheric
I own about 30 Dylan albums and have to admit that this is probably my favourite. Moody, atmospheric. I just love it.
Published 11 months ago by Mark R. Kennedy
My Mum loved it!
I bought this for my mum for mothers day. She loved it! It has lots of good songs for all Bob Dylan fans out there! A good buy :) x
Published 21 months ago by Phoebe
Mercy Indeed
Making an astonishing come back this was Dylan's best album for many years. The confessional "Most of the Time" is just genius and still gives me solace and perspective at those... Read more
Published 22 months ago by Stalker
review.
Whilst not my favourite Dylan album (Blood on the tracks is an exceptionally hard album to top) It certainly is the strongest as a whole and one of only a couple Bobby Albums I... Read more
Published 23 months ago by The Other Side
A VERY UNDER-RATED CLASSIC.
SOME OF UNCLE BOBS ALBUMS ARE OVERLOOKED,THIS IS ONE OF THEM.THAT PUZZLES ME? "DISEASE OF CONCEIT" "MOST OF THE TIME" "SHOOTING STAR" THESE ARE OUTSTANDING LYRICALLY &... Read more
Published on 28 Nov 2009 by Mr. Terence Peddle
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Listmania!
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
