Album #27: Under the Red Sky

 Released September 10, 1990

This album was generally deemed to be “disappointing,” after the artistic success of Oh Mercy. Dylan switched producers, from Daniel Lanois to the Was brothers, and he had some trouble working with them. He also used a huge number of guest musicians, including George Harrison, Bruce Hornsby, Elton John, Slash, David Crosby,  and the Vaughn brothers. This resulted in a pretty chaotic recording experience.

While there’s nothing really earth-shattering here, and the songwriting is definitely uneven, I was perfectly OK with this album. The only really unsuccessful song (“unsuccessful” sounds better than “bad”) is “Wiggle Wiggle”. It sounds like it should be a children’s song, but it definitely isn’t. 

“TV Talkin’ Song” is funny. “Unbelievable” and “2x2” are good.  “Handy Dandy” is probably my favorite. 

“Handy Dandy” outtake:

https://youtu.be/xrrsAuzI0hU?si=F67cwaSKIRKbAUgY

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