Bob Dylan – Things Have Changed: Volume Two Review

Bob Dylan has a constant instrumental range at his disposal and makes good on it enough to warrant listening to the unofficial bootlegs of his live recordings. Things Have Changed: Volume Two offers much the same quality as the first instalment. The man himself hurrying through changes to his voice and wildly darting between styles. Out of all these live showcases it is likely that 2014 is the roughest of all. A rewarding listen, but a challenging one. Effort is made by Dylan to throw his voice to new ideas. Crackling and cool renditions of his best tracks are trialled for the sake of future instrumental clarity. The penny is close to dropping and a seemingly frustrated effect takes over. Dylan has found himself closer to the sounds which would mark Rough and Rowdy Ways on this piece. Not long to go. 

Things had changed. With the first instalment sounding off on the quieter and delicate tone Dylan has taken with his new voice, the second set of songs is a booming trip through the summer and autumn leg of the 2014 tour. High Water opens this section of Things Have Changed – a track which feels elusive yet constant in the touring schedule Dylan provides. Perhaps it is the rightful confusion people feel having seen it left off Love and Theft. Yet it becomes a common and much-loved part of the setlist and a brutal, crunching focus on the guitar in this performance is a pleasant surprise. It marks a strong performance and the lack of a well-known album rip means Dylan can toy with the vocal style freely. Things Have Changed does well to identify why Dylan plays his lesser-known works. He has freedom, and a lack of expectation from the audience, which means he can load up on intimacy. 

Booming through this collection are tracks from Blood on the Tracks. How lucky listeners at home are to hear it after critics of the time binned it off as a less than watertight experience. There is a fine line between impossible-to-understand and heartbreaking emotion. Simple Twist of Fate is outstanding. Further thrills can be found on Early Roman Kings, which features the guitar work which would be so frequently used on Rough and Rowdy Ways as well as a rare cut of Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues. Where the hits are frequent it is in the vocal changes and instrumental force present that change is clear. Shelter from the Storm is offered some whoops and cries but is slower, a sharper wit overshadows it. Dylan provides room for the heartbreak as Simple Twist of Fate did.  

Where it would be impossible to fault Dylan for finding new life in these tracks he has not managed it with Blowin’ in the Wind. His winding ballads and post-folk essentials are of their usual instrumental quality, but his hurried vocals and sudden pauses do not lend themselves to the iconic tempo found on his The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan release. The rest of these tracks are in good order and welcome the notions of his changed vocal style. Most of us have accepted it but a few outliers here remind of an experimental time. Experience those haggard impressions and the slow drawl which glides over these classics and remember how lucky we are to have those initial recordings. Dylan is in consistent form for this second Things Have Changed volume. The instrumentals get ahead of him occasionally.