Jakob Dylan

Seeing Things

(Columbia)

Record Review by Adam McKibbin

The Wallflowers have long seemed to be on the verge of fading back into the wallpaper for good.  They celebrated their last album by not touring and parting ways with Interscope.  When they got back on the road, it was without longtime keyboardist Rami Jaffee.  They’ve found considerable AAA success, but haven’t really cracked back into the mainstream since taking too long to make an album after the huge success of 1996’s Bringing Down the House.  

Now frontman Jakob Dylan has stepped out solo, with his first solo album and a touring band called Jakob Dylan and The Gold Mountain Rebels.  Judging by Seeing Things, Dylan will do just fine on his own.  This isn’t entirely surprising; he has a good track record… and did we mention that he has Bob Dylan’s genes?  The latter, of course, is a well-documented blessing and curse, one that’s only understood by the Sean Lennons of the world.  The younger Dylan has done as good a job as could be expected in honoring his father’s legacy while adamantly staking out on his own.  The Wallflowers didn’t sound much like Dad.  Seeing Things strips it down to acoustics and strongly focuses on lyrics – almost certainly the sort of album that Dylan had to grow into.

At worst, Seeing Things is comfortable and pleasant.  Not all of the songs find the right hook – or much of a hook at all.  But there are also some real revelations, starting with the patiently foreboding “Evil is Alive and Well” – but really clicking with “Valley of the Low Sun” “Will It Grow.”  “Valley of the Low Sun” spins a compelling narrative, helped along by two of the album’s best vocal melodies.  Dylan sounds wearied but impassioned, and while it’s not a song that’s set in present day, it’s hard not to think of our current global quagmire when Dylan sings “I know that soldiers are not paid to think / But something is making us sick / Onward and steady / Able and young.”

Rick Rubin – the one man who’s clearly not been affected by the economic downturn – produced the album, mostly  taking his Johnny Cash approach of keeping things clean and keeping out of the way.  More than ever before, the focus is on Dylan here, and he rises to the challenge, laying the first stone in what will hopefully be a long solo career.