Dylan kicks Knopfler from number 1 position in Dutch album top 100 chart

[Guitarman1972]

Is this the way Dylan thanks Knopfler?   

http://www.nu.nl/muziek/2909530/bob-dylan-36-jaar-weer-bovenaan-albumlijst.html

[Love Expresso]

It is funny in a way, isn't it? I am sure Mark would have a good laugh about this..

LE

[ds1984]

The teacher get the pupil's seat 

[border_reiver]

I think Tempest is great.

But how can it be the same person that stood and croaked right after MK finished up last November??   

[superval99]

But how can it be the same person that stood and croaked right after MK finished up last November??   

And he'll still be croaking this November!   

[dmg]

At least it shows that there's still room for two rockers over the age of sixty in the album charts and that they can beat all these so-called "talented" younger artists.  Well done to both of them.  Especially MK!

[Guitarman1972]

He has been quite croaking on his album too 

Tempest is almost unlistenable because of the vocals.

[ingridswing]

I am not going to buy it. Liked BD till some years ago, but last year I was literally blown away (that means out of the halls) all the time.
So I stick to the old BD

[goldenheart96]

Dylan is da legend, that's pretty much the only reason why he's No. 1. It has nothing to do with quality. LIstened to some album tracks and it's plain horrible. No thank you Bob.

[twm]

In respect of TEMPEST, I don't like those reviews that say "his best album since whichever previous album you like to name" but I can say that, on a few initial listens, I find this album is a most interesting addition to Dylan's canon, perhaps the most interesting in the last decade. I will resist explaining why, as it would take too long.

In terms of displacing Knopfler from the top of the Dutch chart, the article says that Dylan has had very few No.1 albums in that chart, so it can hardly be argued that he got there this time just because he is a "legend". If that were the sole reason, then every Dylan album since DESIRE in 1976 would have got to No.1. They did not and that is a gap of over 35 years - a lifetime for some AMIT readers.

[superval99]

It couldn't be due to the fact that it was massively publicized and hyped-up, could it?   

[twm]

I tried to keep to the facts, as given in the Dutch article, but we can all speculate, so let me have a go.

I'm sure (aggressive) marketing plays its part and therefore has some impact but I don't believe that the publicity and hype in respect of TEMPEST were any greater than they were for, say, the previous five Dylan studio albums. TEMPEST got to No.1 in this Dutch chart; the others did not.

It is possible that, in the case of TEMPEST, the "sales competition" was less strong than for the previous releases.

As chart success requires so relatively few sales these days, it doesn't take much for chart positions to change fairly quickly, so it may equally be a question of timing. An album gets released one week and it sales peak as fans buy it but sales soon fall away , just as another artist's album is released and its sales peak, only then to fall away.

Maybe its a question that Dylan fans are older and tend to buy physical albums rather than download them.

Historically, the Dylan albums that sell well do so in the short period after release. In this case, the album was actually sold before release date, got a fairly positive "word of mouth" around fans and record buyers, which may have generated more sales in the pre-release period. Possibly, all those sales got recorded, under the system, in the week immediately following the official relelase date. By this "sleight of hand", sales that might have been spread over a few weeks got concentrated in the week of release, pushing it to the top of the chart. I don't know this but, as I said, I am just speculating.

[Rail King]

In respect of TEMPEST, I don't like those reviews that say "his best album since whichever previous album you like to name" but I can say that, on a few initial listens, I find this album is a most interesting addition to Dylan's canon, perhaps the most interesting in the last decade. I will resist explaining why, as it would take too long.

TWM, please do! (explain why you think Tempest is his most interesting recored in the last decade.) I like Tempest (with the exception of that horribly embarrassing Lennon song), but I think it's nowhere near "Love and Theft", for instance.

And regarding the charts: It doesn't surprise me that the two of them came out on top. These days, only old farts still buy physical albums and pay for music. No wonder that their peers  should dominate the charts.

[twm]

I'm sorry but I really don't have the time. There are family matters to attend to and my presence on AMIT at the moment is intermittent and won't allow me to develop my ideas.

I will only say that, for some of his more recent albums, I put them down after a few plays in order to come back to them later. This one, I can't wait to replay right after each playing of it. There are themes and ideas that resonate between songs. There is the updating of old ballads - the mixing of past and present, of dreams and reality, of brief pleasures and longer-lasting pains. There's that nice slow intro to the album (I assume Duquesne Whistle is a leftover from the previous album), the range of musical styles, the waltz on Tempest itself. And his voice may be ravaged but, with a few exceptions, he really uses it (or what's left of it) to put over the songs. There is much to like about the album and little to dislike.  I am not saying it is the perfect album but it really has grabbed me early on and I think it may grow and grow. I haven't felt that about a new Dylan studio album in a while.  I'm hoping to catch a couple of shows later this year, towards the end of the tour with MK, and I just hope he plays a raft of songs from the new album and that his voice does not deteriorate further during the tour. We live in "hope".