“You won’t believe just how good it can get,” Jakob Dylan sings on The Wallflowers’ new album “Red Letter Days,” which hit stores Nov. 5.
That very line describes the album, the band’s first release since 2000’s “Breach.” And where “Breach” failed as a compilation, “Red Letter Days” succeeds. The songs are inspired, well crafted and thoughtful. Dylan himself said it best when he told the San Francisco Chronicle he didn’t want to repeat his past successes with his latest release.
“I have no intention of trying to repeat anything. I don’t know how you do that anyway, if you really wanted to,” he told the paper. “The important thing is to step up and make another record. It’s never been a question of how many; it’s always been a question of how good. I just keep my mind on that.”
The album’s high point — in both melodic and songwriting terms — is the album’s third track, “Closer to You.” The song proves that he can do more than pen a good ballad, he can also sing — something most critics tend to overlook.
“How long an hour can take/When you’re staring into open space/When I feel I’m slipping further away/I remember that every day/I get a little bit closer to you.”
With “Red Letter Days” not only has Dylan’s songwriting matured, his latest collection of songs cross various musical genres. With songs like “Three Ways,” “Health and Happiness” and “Here in Pleasantville,” Dylan and The Wallflowers breach opposite ends of the musical spectrum from dark, near hateful rock to more light-hearted efforts.
“I’m not interested in representing any one style,” Dylan told the New York Daily News. “But rock ‘n’ roll will be around forever. The line that goes back to Elvis, all those Sun Records … no one can argue with that.”
The new direction is obvious from the first sounds of the album’s opening track — “When You’re On Top.” The tracks starts out like anything but a traditional rock song. Then comes the chorus — Dylan’s catchiest refrain since “One Headlight” from 1996’s Bringing Down the Horse.
“I need a bed/That nobody’s slept in/I need some air/Nobody’s been breathing/I need a thought/That I can believe in.”
The song is sure to be a classic. Because after all, “Nothing’s ever as good/As when you’re on top.”
Published Nov. 15, 2002, in The Leaf-Chronicle of Clarksville, Tenn.
