I'm Not There/Impressed

[Benjamin]

Anyone check out this soundtrack? I did as I dig a lot of the artists on there and think that Bob Dylan is awfully talented. But after a listen, I found it pretty boring. I take Cat Power's "Paths of Freedom" to be an outstanding example of a Dylan cover. Most of the songs on the soundtrack came up far short of this standard. Mostly faithful renderings of the originals. Am I missing something? I will say that the title song - both Dylan's and SY's cover- are pretty great.

[dola]

Using the same backing band as the control:

Perfect Casting: Steven Malkmus "Ballad of a Thin Man"
Embarassing: Karen O "Highway 61 Revisited"

[Benjamin]

"Embarassing" is being nice. I think a NYT reviewer likened it to bad karaoke.

[Lukas]

I loved all the Malkmus covers. I was expecting great things from him since he's had experience covering Dylan in the past. He delivered.

Although, Cat Power had by far the best cover on the compilation.

I also enjoyed Sufjan's rendition of Ring Them Bells. The song suited him perfectly.

[Dean]

The My Morning Jacket take on "Goin' To Acapulco" has nothing on the Crust Brothers version from "Marquee Mark."

[johansen smith]

the Karen O and Hold Steady tracks are unlistenable.
the Malk (esp Thin Man), the Black Keys, Los Lobos, and Charlotte Gainsbourg/Calexico trax fare best.
Pretty good soundtrack but a lot of the entries are too slavish to the originals.

[Benjamin]

It seems like it could have been one CD with some really great stuff, rather than two with a lot of so-so to bad on it. Ever hear the Will Oldham cover of "Going to Acapulco"? That might have been nice on there.