Street-Legal
by Bob Dylan

This is one of Dylan's most underrated albums, at least in my opinion. I think it gets kind of forgotten, as it comes after the high artistic achievements of, blood on the tracks, and, desire, and the forthcoming 'god' trilogy. Opener, changing of the guard's, is great, with some nice E-street band sax on it. Pony, is an excellent dirty blues, one of Bob's best twelve bars. Baby stop crying, and, is your love in vain? , are nice pop songs. The best of the bunch though, are, Senor, and, where are you tonight?. The rest is fine too. Street legal has it's own sound with the female backing vocals and the saxes. It's also got a new decent re-mix on the CD. Good album (Edited)

From Brandon8 TOP 100 COMMENTER 01/05/2015 04:33 | #130855 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

Dylan goes for a different style on this album with a large backing arrangement and singers. He definitely goes for it sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't and it drags a bit towards the end but Changing of the Guard and Señor are classic tracks. (Edited)

One of Mr. Zimmerman's less celebrated releases. Maybe not up there with his classic material but still strong and Señor and Changing Of The Guards are right up there with his best material. (Edited)

From Mercury TOP 100 COMMENTER 01/28/2014 18:45 | #101759 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

26 January 2014

It's for sure a little too sleek for my liking. It's squeaky clean, man. But it's actually, lyrically and musically quite adventurous and actually... Really fucking good!

One thing I love about this album is how Dylan is seeming to accept with open arms the plasticity of the sound and runs with it. The whole band buys in and what they ended up producing was a silly at times, gorgeous at times, pop record.

The opener, "Changing of The Guards" is clearly a stand out. Its brilliant lyrically. Cryptic, allegorical... About Christ? Joan of Arc? I'm not sure. But the word play and the story is utterly impressive and poetic. I grow irritated by the background singers echoing every line. But the lyrics have such depth, there are times when I'm so wrapped up in the story and metaphors that I don't even register the musical background.

"New Pony" is actually a really good (and, yes, overall slick) blues song. I really love what the band and singers do here.

Other stand out tracks include the epic pop of "No Time To Think" which features excellent guitar and keyboard interplay, "Baby Stop Crying" - plastic soul done very nicely, and the classic Spanish epic "Señor (Tales Of Yankee Power)".

Anyway, there are some points on here where the clean production comes off all wrong for me. And the thing drags a bit toward the end for me personally. But, really, this is a very good album IMO. It deserves more credit and accolades than it gets. It's no BotT or Desire. But it's highly recommended for Bob Dylan fans.

Grade: 79/100

This is in my top half dozen Dylan albums. I think the second side is as good as any, and No Time to Think from the first side is also great. Where are you Tonight is one of my all time favourite Dylan tracks.