By Susie Salva
Jakob Dylan has released his first-ever solo album, “Seeing Things” on Columbia Records and it proves to be an outstanding effort. The songs certainly make the listener sit up and take notice. No doubt there will be comparisons to his iconic father Bob Dylan, but Jakob Dylan can definitely stand on his own. His 10-tracks are spare, unblinking visions, stripped to the bone, full of dread and darkness one minute and spirited optimism the next. Dylan speaks to songs that are inspired by the war, but not in overtly obvious ways.
“Evil is Alive and Well”, “Valley of the Low Sun”, “I Told You I Couldn’t Stop” and “War is Kind” represent Dylan’s exploration of the war and his fine sentiments about the issue. The CD also pays tribute to the blue-collar worker on “All Day and All Night” and summons up his folksy roots on “Everybody Pays as They Go” with some cool harmonies and fine guitar picking. “Something Good this Way Comes” is the happy-go-lucky, feel good track emphasizing several nice guitar runs and discovering optimism.
After five albums as the leader of the platinum selling Grammy-winning band The Wallflowers, this project reveals Dylan’s striking and powerful new approach to his work. For this album, Dylan is stripped down to just using his guitar and stellar voice. “Once I realized that this album was basically going to just be guitar and voice,” says Jakob Dylan, “I had to work a bit differently, because there’s nothing but the song to grab your attention.”
Still, he had to find a voice that matched his intention. “You want each record to have a language that’s unique to itself,” he says. The new chapter began with “Valley of the Low Sun”, a haunting, gently ominous dreamscape. “There’s always something that tells you that you’ve started a record,” he explains, “and when that song hit me, I realized I had begun.”
The rest of the album was written over the next few months, at which point Dylan played them for Rick Rubin (Johnny Cash, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Dixie Chicks, and Jay-Z had all worked with Rubin), who had recently become the head of Dylan’s new label, Columbia Records and he became Dylan’s guide for unlocking the songs on “Seeing Things.”
The lyrics of these ten songs return again and again to visions of apocalypse and war. Asked if the imagery is a result of the times we live in, Dylan allows that, “I wouldn’t know how to write something today and not have that sense in there.” But, he emphasizes, he isn’t interested in writing literal commentary on current events. “I never find it that distinctive to reverence or name-check specific moments, or to write actual narratives,” he says. “I’m still too caught up in the beauty of words. It doesn’t matter what you’re talking about—if you truly tell it the way you see it, you’re never going to have regrets.”
But, there’s nothing one-dimensional about “Seeing Things”; it is also marked by the joy found in such songs as “Something Good This Way Comes.” “I was aware that it was shaping up as a very dramatic record, but I believe those optimistic things, too,” says Dylan. “People might sometimes listen to my songs and think I’m depressed, but I’m really not. There’s always been hope and humor in what I write.”
As for The Wallflowers, Dylan maintains that the band is alive and well, and that “Seeing Things” represents a hiatus, not an ending. “The Wallflowers are designed for a certain sound, and I needed something different,” he says. “I have a great group, and I want to make more records with them. But I’ve never had a chance to hear my voice sound this way coming out of the speakers.”
For all things Jakob Dylan please go to www.jakobdylan.com or www.columbiarecords.com.
