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Bob Dylan - Empire Burlesque (1985)

Track listing:
  1. Tight Connection to My Heart 5:23
  2. Seeing The Real You At Last 4:21
  3. I'll Remember You 4:14
  4. Clean Cut Kid 4:16
  5. Never Gonna Be The Same Again 3:10
  6. Trust Yourself 3:29
  7. Emotionally Yours 4:30
  8. When The Night Comes Falling From The Sky 7:31
  9. Something's Burning, Baby 4:53
  10. Dark Eyes 5:07
  11. Something's Burning, Baby 4:49

Notes


Say what you want about Empire Burlesque — at the very least, it's the most consistent record Bob Dylan has made since Blood on the Tracks, even if it isn't quite as interesting as Desire. However, it is a better set of songs, all deriving from the same place and filled with subtle gems — the most obvious being "Tight Connection to My Heart (Has Anybody Seen My Love?)," but also "Emotionally Yours" and "Dark Eyes" — proving that his powers are still there. The rest of the album may not be as graceful, but it's still well-crafted songwriting that never fails to be interesting. The record's biggest flaw is its state-of-the-art production; this is every bit as slick as Street Legal, but now sounds more focused and more of its time — thanks to a reliance on synthesizers and mildly sequenced beats — than it did upon its original release. All this makes Empire Burlesque seem more transient than it actually is, since — discounting the production — this is as good as Dylan gets in his latter days.