The Bootleg Series, Volume 2 - Bob Dylan

Track list:

1. Seven Curses
2. Eternal Circle
3. Suze
4. Mama, You Been On My Mind
5. Farewell, Angelina
6. Subterranean Homesick Blues
7. If You Gotta Go, Go Now
8. Sitting On A Barbed Wire Fence
9. Like a Rolling Stone
10. It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry
11. I'll Keep It With Mine
12. She's Your Lover Now
13. I Shall Be Released
14. Santa-Fe
15. If Not for You
16. Wallflower
17. Nobody 'Cept You
18. Tangled Up in Blue
19. Call Letter Blues
20. Idiot Wind

Running time: 76 minutes
Released: 1991

Time for some Dylan. I am pretty sure this was a gift at some point and not something I went out to buy myself, which may explain why I only have volume 2. Whilst I have a sprinkling of Dylan, and recognise his importance and stature, his influence on a lot of the musicians I love, I don't share any real love of his work. I wonder what sitting through 76 minutes of just him will do for me.

Seven Curses starts us off with a pleasant little picked acoustic melody, a bright sound but a melancholic air to the little loop that suits the lyrics well. Weirdly it feels as though this tune would be a good fit for the soundtrack of Life is Strange - the guitar loops very at home with the feel of that game. It is a strong start from my perspective, but I am less taken with Eternal Circle which sees Dylan's voice have a more prominent impact on the tone of the song. I have never really got on with his delivery and when it is strong relative to the accompaniment as it is here then it begins to grate. That and the backing was pretty bland.

We hit a more interesting melody next - a bit more going on in Suze - and an extra layer courtesy of a mouth organ, though the timbre is a little shrill for my taste. This is a 2 minute instrumental which is fine... until a weird end when Dylan coughs, which gives the tune its subtitle of "The Cough Song" and leaves a poor impression. Listening to 4 in a row now, it strikes me that tune-wise there is a reliance on little repeated sections. They sound relatively simple, too - though not being a guitar player I wouldn't like to say they actually are. I guess this is one reason why people think Dylan's songs are best when covered by others - a little more invention in the performance. Speculation on my part, I guess, though his rather hard-to-love voice is probably another factor.

My problem is that here where, for the most part, it is just him and his guitar, the repetitive nature of the playing is so darn obvious and rather detracts from the songs. I suspect each song individually would not invoke this problem, as a single tune based on an oft-repeated loop with very little elaboration is one thing. Many in a row is another matter, at least to my ear; when the only other thing to hook onto is Dylan's voice I feel between a rock and a hard place... I don't really dislike any of the tracks, just experiencing them back-to-back.

At least Subterranean Homesick Blues breaks things up a bit. It manages this by shifting tone and tempo more than changing the basic formula. The faster pace, and warmer sound on the strings help, and the tune is gone before I know it. It seems to have marked a turning point on this record as the next track is also faster and warmer - and this time with extra depth provided by a band and harmonies on the chorus. There's a nice drive to it, the keys in the background adding a rounded tone. The keyboard remains through Sitting on a Barbed Wire Fence too - though on this track they loop in a less interesting way, with a harsher trill to it, which starts to irk me after 2 minutes. The song has a nice bluesy feel to it, but my enjoyment of that feel is tempered a lot by the staid repetition and I find myself very glad when it starts to fade out.
 

Like a Rolling Stone is piano-driven here, pretty dull melody, the embellishments of an organ trill and harmonica don't help, and the track then ends abruptly; a live recording where Dylan says his voice has gone, and if he thinks it is bad... We approach the half way point with a tune that from its core structure sounds like it wants to be Everybody Needs Somebody but doesn't have the heart or soul to manage it. It then veers off into a series of spikier sounds, none of which I think quite gel with the vocal and leave me actively disliking the track, so much so that when I'll Keep it with Mine returns to a more subdued sound I welcome the switch. This track feels like a recording experiment; it may be my ears but it sounds like volume levels are subtly shifting throughout this piece - which despite that aural illusion is probably the most enjoyable song since track 1. Muted keys, a slower pace and a more relaxed vocal - it has a more comfortable sound, warm and easy, supportive. And if you get what I mean there you must be some kind of savant!

She's Your Lover Now is a 6 minute track which I worry about, but it starts at a high clip, with a nice blend of instruments and with Dylan not dominating with his vocal. I like the cadence, the roll of keyboards and the rumble of the drums, the longer syllables even rather than a clipped end of line. Everything about the track holds together well through the first half at least, and even an interruption to receive a parcel doesn't break the mood. Far from being something to worry about, this is the high point to date. The tempo is maintained, the tune feels more varied (even though it probably is not) but really it is the synergy between the keys and drums that carry it. The only issue is the very abrupt end which, for a track of that length is a surprise.

I Shall Be Released slows everything down, I rather like the sentiment and the structure but the execution here leaves something to be desired in ways I cannot quite put my finger on. Whilst I try to find a good explanation we roll on to Santa-Fe. Should that be hyphenated, really? This sounds like a jumble of everything and nothing. No substance, but an awful lot of sound. I am not keen. Track 15 and there is still another half hour to go, with two more long ones in the last quarter. This take on If Not For You I rather like - warmer and fuller of sound, and slower than other versions (I have 2 more in my collection it seems) it has the heart to connect music and lyrics more strongly than the stripped back recordings.

I think that recording might spoil Wallflower, which follows. It is just so inferior in every sense as to be anonymous, like the titular figure. An apt piece of songwriting and album ordering perhaps, but a nothingness of a track for me, and Nobody 'Cept You hardly improves on it either. Country stylings don't help, nor does the constant swell of sound or the uninspired vocal. I am not being very charitable here, but I simply felt nothing for these tracks at all.

Two big ones in the last three. Tangled Up In Blue is 7 minutes, Idiot Wind nine. The former returns us to guitar and voice territory but it is miles away from the acoustic pickings that we heard early on, there is a depth to it - a couple of supporting players can really help with that! - that gives the tune a real rounded quality. The bright strings are never too strong, and likewise Dylan's voice is never too harsh here. I don't really think the track needs to be as long as it is - the story of the song might be cut short by reducing the length but my patience for it starts fraying sometime around 5 minutes. I can't help but feel that an edited version of the song without a verse or two would be a superior experience - not that this one is unpleasant. It draws down just before I finally lose goodwill with it, and we get a blues number before our epic closer. I rather like this insert. Tonally its a nice break between the marathon tracks and it has a nice rhythm - at least for the first 2 minutes. After that it starts to grate, the song really needed to be building for a finish under 3 minutes not prolonging for 4 and a half. There is no significant elaboration until just before the 4 minute mark, which is criminal. A really solid base thrown down the pan by extending it past the point of interest before doing anything with it. Idiot Wind is not a very nice song. It leaves a sour taste and I find the style quite dull too. Others are free to love it and call it classic and so on, but I'll be over here disliking it and never listening to it by choice again. 

So, where does that leave me? Some gems, some duds, lots of Dylan back-to-back was a bit of an ordeal but a sprinkling here and there is pretty welcome. Back where I started, then.

Interlude: Life is Strange

Whilst not quite a first in talking about things outside of music, this post goes further than when I spoke about playlisting for the RPG I'm running. Incidentally the playlist doesn't make it to sessions anymore as I can't be arsed heaving the laptop over, or pissing about with an MP3 player that probably won't be compatible with the outputs at my friend's house (no Apple for me).

I suppose technically, since I own the game, the Life is Strange soundtrack is part of my library. Since a licensed soundtrack is not available to purchase it is not included in the digital library that I am actually progressing through, only within the game itself, which I am playing on PS4. There is a YouTube playlist which I am listening to whilst writing this piece. Whilst I will chat a little bit about the use of music in the game (generally excellent), this post is an interlude more because I feel a need to write about the game proper and I don't want to revive a long-dead blog to do it. I have mentioned Life is Strange a few times in passing during recent posts, as a competing demand on my time, as something that I have been enjoying and thinking about in the wider sphere of my life. The goal with this project has never been to focus, laser-like, on the music and nothing else. It is, rather, a stream of consciousness merely directed by the music and where the primary purpose is to get me listening to things I have overlooked and trim out material I would not want to listen to again. Stepping away from that to talk about a videogame is a bit of a departure and, suffice to say, not one I was expecting to make. However for better or worse this is now my platform.

For those that don't know, Life is Strange is an episodic game (to date 4 of 5 are out, and I have just completed the 4th) from Dontnod Entertainment and published by Square Enix. It is an interactive story-slash-adventure game set in the Pacific northwest and focusing around events in one hick town and, particularly, the "prestigious" school institution there. Quotes, because it doesn't really feel like the school is, or should be, so rated. The game is mostly notable for a few things:

1. It does Telltale better than Telltale
2. It has a female protagonist and a majority of the major cast are female
3. Time travel and other magical weirdness, including nods to several genre properties to have trodden similar ground before.

There is a lot more to it than that, but it is the intersection of points 1 and 3 that really makes the game tick, whilst point 2 gives it a distinct flavour to many adventure games. The time travel, or rewind, mechanic means that you can explore different paths for your choices before deciding on which one to go with. These choices are also generally more weighty, with no clear cut right/wrong outcomes, and have more impact on what is to come than in Telltale games, too - or at least, that has been my experience. Judging from the breakdown of choices at the end of each episode I am probably not alone in that view. It also means that there isn't a timer on the decision points the way that Telltale tend to do. There are some time-based events, but the magical time travel girl uses her power to rewind to solve those puzzles and it's not a question of "didn't choose in time, so we'll pick for you".

Before I verge into spoiler territory and talk about the content of the game I want to tenuously justify this post with the music discussion. Put simply, Life is Strange uses music fantastically well. Rather than going down the route of hiring composers to generate them bespoke music, the majority of the LiS soundtrack is compiled from tunes put out by artists or groups you may well have heard of (e.g. Alt-J, Mogwai, José González; the Alt-J track being one of the few that I kept from the disappointing An Awesome Wave), integrated in much the same way that you find licensed music used in TV. Not to do videogame composition down (I bloody love the Bastion soundtrack after all), but this feels like a step forward in two ways. First, to secure the licenses in the first instance by having a product that labels and artists are happy to associate themselves with. In other words the continued movement of gaming towards mainstream entertainment and everything that means - including a more diverse audience. Secondly the seamless integration with the content alongside original scoring, like in film.

All of this builds a really strong sense of place and atmosphere. Some of the nicest moments in the game are found where Max, our protagonist, can simply sit somewhere in her environment and muse upon the events. You can even have her sit down with her guitar and noodle out one or two of the tracks herself. The pieces chosen are often quite soothing despite the game itself not necessarily following suit. In text this presents like dissonance, in context the musical support provides the relief and mental break that you can imagine our protagonist needing to deal with the week that she is having. Also, whilst often soothing, they are not placid tracks, a distinction which is important to the generation of that atmosphere. The Mogwai track Kids Will Be Skeletons is my go-to example there; the title implies something darker than the light and airy guitar melodies actually deliver but there is a murkiness in the bass and percussive structure that provides a tension in the track which stops it just rocking you to relaxation. Or at least in my case. The song is used for the lead up to a particularly sad/shocking moment, a cliffhanger to end an episode. It just works so well and implies that the studio really put some effort in to identify exactly what they wanted to do and how to do it. This is something that always impresses me; as someone who listens to a fair bit of music (I have actually had a chance this week, albeit shuffles whilst working from home more than dedicated listens for this blog!) from across several spheres my mind boggles as to how perfect tracks are identified to accompany visuals. Its something that usually impresses me about BBC documentaries as much as anything else.

Worryingly, this may turn out to be the single longest post here and it's technically off topic. Still, on to the game itself. Here be spoilers, perhaps.

Given this post, it will surprise no-one to find out I love Life is Strange. As a whole it is the best thing I have played in a very long time, despite ostensibly covering US teen/college drama, which I loathe. I think I enjoy Telltale's Tales from the Borderlands more because the humour is fantastically on the button, but I don't think it is a better game. Not by a long chalk.

Episode 1 was a so-so introduction. You get to learn about Max's power and deal with teen wangst and slice of life drama as it starts, but it escalates pretty quickly into saving the life of Max's estranged BFF from her early teens, Chloe. Chloe is a real love her or hate her character, I suspect. I fall squarely on the second side of that, finding her willful stupidity hard to relate to and harder to like. Max I found almost as hard to like to begin with but she grew on me with later episodes, becoming a bit more assertive and less self-pitying. The episode as a whole is pretty much all setup - people, places and the events you will investigate as the plot thickens. I was enticed enough, but not wholly sold.

Episode 2 changed that completely. Whilst navigating around Chloe's epicentre of drama and crazy, which is driven by one of the main plot threads, the disappearance of her friend Rachel that you are investigating, you are also dealing with the deep depression of one of Max's college friends, brought on by bullying and, it turns out later, much, much worse. Kate Marsh is by far the most sympathetic character in the game, and set up to be so really well. The "Jesus waits" type is often the butt of the jokes in college-set media and Kate is positioned in that role. However the game starts with Max as an outsider of sorts too, meaning Kate is by far her most relate-able classmate which sucks the player in. The inevitable progression of the bullying is really powerful over the two episodes and it had me standing up for Kate at every turn, seeing where it was going.  There's a moment in the episode where Chloe rants at Max if you choose to take a call from Kate instead of being all about her (Chloe and Max having fully reconciled not speaking for 5 years during ep. 1) which is, above every other stupid or crappy thing Chloe does, the moment that defines her character for me. I took the call in my playthrough, of course, and didn't even consider rewinding to see the other path.

That right there? An example of how good the game is. It gives you all the tools to fully explore every decision you could make, but then is written in such a way as to produce strong emotional "fuck yous!" to the idea of doing so in places.

The episode progresses and has, thus far, the stand-out ending. No matter what Max does to be good to Kate over two episodes, the rest of the cast outweigh that with their dickishness and Kate, having been the victim of being drugged, has some out of character actions filmed and exposed. She's suicidal and there is an incredibly powerful scene where you - sans rewind having blown your limit to stop time and reach Kate - have to talk her down from the rooftop before she jumps. It can, apparently, go both ways. I got the better result here and would have been pretty emotionally devastated if I had not managed to, more praise for the writing.

See the thing is: the main cast is used really well. This may be an adventure game, but all the most important choices relate directly to other characters or conversations, not objects or investigations. The focus is on navigating the social maze more than the puzzle of what happened to Rachel or what is going on. At least early, anyway. Yes - there are more puzzle-like sections, and these are my least favourite pieces of the game. In episode 4 you are pulling together clues and it's just dull gameplay... its a fair bit of a letdown after the conversational choices earlier. The majority female cast is well realised and most of the time talking to people is fun and interesting. You can, it seems, change a lot of lives in a few conversations. Which, obviously, is OTT for real life, but adds weight to the interactions in the game and focusing on this is a really neat change in tack from most games.

Kate is not the only character who can live or die in different story paths; apparently there's a thread where one of the less savory characters (and note, none of the main cast are nearly as two-dimensional in the good/bad person sense as they first appear) can die as a result of Chloe's actions (which are guided by you as Max with her rewind or "don't do that it sucks!" power). These characters aren't central to the primary plot strand then, but thus far I have seen enough to suggest that, unlike my experience with Telltale games, the paths are truly divergent with several different end states. The main plot might conclude similarly every time (or not, but I would guess it does) but the surrounding details feel substantially more weighty.

Anyhow, after the excellence of episode 2, the third installment was just about able to keep pace. Its crowning moment was Max learning a new use for her power, rewinding to when she and Chloe were kids and saving Chloe's dad from the traffic accident that killed him, predictably establishing a completely different timeline. Whilst there is some weirdness about original timeline Max suddenly then "waking up" in the present day of an alternate timeline with only memories from the original sequence of events, this was a completely unexpected shift in the game. It is made poignant in the extreme by finding out, at the end of the episode, how the change played out for Chloe. The game gets really good at emotional gut punches, and holds that over twice for the start of episode 4. I almost had to put down the controller and walk away when the (now paraplegic and getting worse) Chloe asks Max to overdose her with morphine, despite the fallback of a rewind power. I almost had to do it again when, knowing she has to go back to her own timeline you have to sit through Max experiencing the scene where Chloe sees her dad for the last time once more.

Hell, the writing in this game is so good, that reading a synopsis of certain scenes is enough to produce a strong emotional response. 

Episode 4 ratchets up the tension and the creepiness of what is going on. Real human ugliness, not just magical oddity. This move was not unexpected - after all, someone driven to suicide by having been drugged and abducted, and a young woman missing both point to some very nasty goings on. My problem with the game comes right as the final cliffhanger where that darkness is now applied directly to your protagonist in a way that strongly suggests a very limited way to avoid it. The final cutscene has an antagonist spike Max with a needle and her fall down woozy. This is followed by shots of the scene where you found out just how dark things were earlier in the episode. I hope its just appearances because, well... torture horror is not my thing, y'know. Whilst I am fairly certain Max gets out of it somehow, I'd rather not have to go through it first.

Anyhow - I have written far too much in this piece already, and I still need to find time today to listen to more John Lee Hooker to not stall the library run through too far, so I'll draw it to a close there and simply suggest people do themselves a favour and look up episode 1 on whichever platform they prefer, then plough on with the others if taken by it.