You might be aware by now that Bryan Ferry has released an album of Dylan covers called Dylanesque. Does the world need another set of Dylan covers? Well at the risk of understatement he wrote some pretty handy songs and he has been a favourite of the interpreters for a long time but that isn’t the issue at hand here. This review aims to answer that rather more practical challenge, “ Should I buy it?”

Let me however first indulge myself with the theoretical. Why has Bryan Ferry done this?

Well, wouldn’t you? You have loads of money, enough credibility as a songwriter and indeed interpreter in your own right, and no one is going to stop you. In Bryan’s position I would have done the exact same thing for that great pair of motivations: to have fun and make money. And of course there is nothing wrong with carrying on like a tosser as long as you know that’s what you are doing… and we retain the right not to share the tosser’s company. We retain the right to listen or not to listen to Bryan Ferry having some fun with some extraordinary songs.

So, on to a couple of questions less theoretical than Bryan’s motivation:

Has he brought anything new to the songs? Would a person (say, from Mars or less than 30 years old or just with his or her musical head in their respective arse) hearing these songs for the first time recognise their greatness? More to the point, could someone who is familiar with the originals find themselves, at least from time to time, choosing Bryan in preference to Bob?

I would suggest the answer is broadly “no” to all of these.
The shortcomings of the album I think we can assume are not going to be in the writing: which leaves us with the arrangements, the playing and the singing; and Bryan is accountable for all of these.

I feel Bryan gives his musos very little here. The mix of instruments is so flat and anonymous that there is no testament to the skills of the players. Presumably Bryan did not need to hire a bunch of competent but egoless types from some cruise ship combo but that’s what it sounds like. As a result the songs stand up poorly against the solid body of Dylan covers that already exist. If a musician does not feel intimidated by Sir James Hendrix’s rendition of All Along the Watchtower then he should. Every version since then has effectively been a Hendrix cover and this is no different. Sadly it is no more successful.

His Baby Let Me Follow You Down, a pre-Dylan folk number well handled by the Animals, is surely a chance for some unsubtle foot-stomping rock and roll with plenty of edge but Bryan offers no change of pace or colour from the other tracks.

Bryan, are the times really changin’? Your voice tells me you don’t seem to care too much about it.

Positively 4th Street, the almost quintessential Bob Dylan finger-pointing song seems without anger or venom at all, again at the same cruise ship pace. If you wish to hear a good version of Make You Feel My Love, then Luka Bloom is your man. Bryan couldn’t make me feel much more than tired.

I’m sorry Bryan but (even) Olivia Newton John did a better version of If Not For You, and Cold Chisel are among the many acts to better capture Knockin on Heaven’s Door. Bryan sings like he is knocking on the door of an old mistress, knowing that there are plenty more options if this one doesn’t answer. If he had a mobile phone there would be no need for any of this. Get with the times Bryan!

Is this album unleavened by quality? Not quite. The opening track Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues is a bit of a gem for a few reasons: it benefits from being first, before we become aware of the cookie-cutter approach: and it is an album track, not really a radio song, so Bryan makes it accessible to the people who suspect they should like Dylan but can’t get past his insistence on singing with his own voice. And Simple Twist of Fate is also a good early hit-out that again is easy to take with Bryan’s crooning style. I cannot imagine ever playing it while Bob’s original was at hand, but I do enjoy it when I hear it. These two might make a showing in a playlist in this digital cherry-picking era, but the album itself is not an impressive opus and Bryan’s best cover of Dylan remains his 1973 version of A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall.

Bryan Ferry is the real deal. He might sometimes be too suave a man for his own good but he has written and produced plenty edgy and urgent music in the past, and covered acts like The Byrds and Wilson Pickett with genuine success, adding new layers and colours to their impressive templates. He does not do that here. There are a million Dylan covers in the market and many that might from time to time be played in preference to the originals. I do not think we can say that about Ferry’s Dylanesque selection.

After the murder of John Lennon, one of the few people on or at least near Dylan’s plane, Bryan Ferry recorded Jealous Guy, and it was uncharitably described as Bryan’s tribute to his bank manager. It seems they are still mates.

I wish him the best financially with his latest venture. I will admit that the digital age allowed me to listen to the album without tipping any cash in Bryan’s direction, and Bob has more than enough of mine already, thank you very much. But if I am robbing an artist then so is Bryan. Next time mate try and get a better fence for your stolen wares. Like most break and enter men you lack real appreciation for the quality of the gems you have purloined.