Planet Waves
| Bob Dylan
Planet Waves
Planet Waves is the 14th studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on January 17, 1974 by Asylum Records in the United States and Island Records in the United Kingdom. Dylan is supported on the album by longtime collaborators the Band, with whom he embarked on a major reunion tour (documented on the live album Before the Flood) following its release (the tour started a couple weeks before release though Asylum had wanted the album out first). With a successful tour and a host of publicity, Planet Waves was a hit, enjoying a brief stay at No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard charts a first for the artist and No. 7 in the UK. Critics were not as negative as they had been with some then-recent Bob Dylan albums (namely Self Portrait and Dylan), but still not enthusiastic for the album's brand of laid-back roots rock.-Wikipedia
Critic Reviews
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The Vinyl Disctrict
August 29, 2016. That this LP constitutes the only real studio collaboration between Dylan and the Band is downright inexplicable; the feel between Bob and his Basement Tapes compadres is hand and glove, and if the LP is a kind of bummer (“Dirge” and “Wedding Song” make sure of that), it’s a lovely bummer, and makes up for its down in the mouth lyrics with ensemble playing that is inexplicably both impromptu sounding and tight as a pair of too small shoes.
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All Music
Reteaming with the Band, Bob Dylan winds up with an album that recalls New Morning more than The Basement Tapes, since Planet Waves is given to a relaxed intimate tone -- all the more appropriate for a collection of modest songs about domestic life.
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Ultimate Classic Rock
January 17, 2015. When he returned with his 14th studio LP, Planet Waves, on Jan. 17, 1974, it served as his first proper solo album since 1970's New Morning, with only the soundtrack to 1973's Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid and the vault-purging hodgepodge Dylan standing in between.
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Guitar Player
August 10, 2012. Planet Waves is sort of a rebound effort for Bob Dylan, who had released middling material over a four-year period.
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Blog Critics
September 26, 2008. It is mostly a mellow rock album of personal lyrics and love songs. The album has a good, calm feel to it and has grown on me over the years. Sometimes this release is overlooked as it precedes the brilliant Blood On The Tracks. While it may not be its equal, it does remain a very good release.
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Countdown Kid
June 01, 2013. It marked a return to Dylan being a full-time rock star, as he scored his first ever #1 album and put together a huge arena tour with The Band behind it. While many of the songs still harkened back to the simpler pleasures of his previous few albums, a few pointed in the direction of the masterpieces to come.
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Medium
May 28, 2018, This album is definitely worth the time it takes to listen, whether as a painstaking examination of old gods as mortal or simply a relatively overlooked recommendation from a legendary catalogue. I’m glad I sat down with this record.
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The Best Of Website
The question is do you get disappointed by the fact that Planet Waves could be a better product if they had taken their time (the album was completed in three days), or enjoy the output? For Bob Dylan fans there is enough good material to recommend Planet Waves, and for fans of The Band it is a strong recommendation.
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Backseat Mafia
July 8, 2015. Planet Waves could be regarded as some of Dylan's finest work and given that this is the only studio album he recorded with his most celebrated backing band, it is one of the Bob Dylan albums that should be investigated sooner rather than later.
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itunes Apple Music
Dylan was approaching his mid-30s when Planet Waves was made, and maturity clearly suited him.
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Super Seventies RockSite
1996. Planet Waves entered the chart on February 9, 1974, at number 19. A week later, it shot up to the top, finally giving Dylan that elusive Number One.
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The Current
September 11, 2017. Planet Waves features some of Dylan’s most straightforward and self-reflective lyrics with allusions to his childhood (the Duluth shout-out in “Something There Is About You”; and “Hazel,” which is rumored to be about Dylan’s Hibbing sweetheart Echo Helstrom) as well as more timely lyrics touching on some of the difficulties in Dylan’s family life at the time of the recording.
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The Prince Blog
Released on January 17th 1974, Planet Waves, Bob Dylan’s fourteenth album, was his first to hit #1 on the US Billboard Chart (#7 in the UK). It was also his first ‘proper’ album for over three years and had cover artwork by Dylan himself.
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Don Ignacio
Now, when this album was released, it was critically acclaimed. I think the critics at the time were just excited that Dylan was writing normal songs again for a change, after a four year absence from it. ...Heck, if I was around in 1974, I'd be pretty excited about this, also. But, as I'm looking on these records as historical artifacts, I think Planet Waves ultimately stands as a slight disappointment.
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Robert Christgau
Blissful, sometimes, but sometimes it sounds like stray cat music--scrawny, cocky, and yowling up the stairs.
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Mark Prindle
Countryish with The Band. This is pretty good stuff! Real similar to the more "serious" Basement Tapes stuff except that Bob's voice is lower, gruffer and cooler, and The Band sound even tighter and more talented than they had in '66-'67, or whenever.
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Wilson & Alroy's Record Reviews
Bob's reunion with the Band sounds unrehearsed and half-finished. (DBW) Recorded in three days, and it sounds like it. The sloppiness and cacophonous overplaying is ironic, because the Band's own studio work was always immaculately rehearsed and complexly, but economically arranged - which explains why such tunes as "The Weight" are important and eminently likeable classics.(JA)
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Adrian Denning
May 24, 2013. There is no communal sound or atmosphere across this records eleven songs as compared to the silly but charming 'Nashville Skyline' or even just the murk and humanity of 'New Morning'.
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Elsewhere
July 18, 2011. The songs are spare and taut, melodically interesting with sometimes angular arrangements, and many offer flashes of the deeply personal. Some are dark, others -- like the hugely popular Forever Young -- seem sentimental, warm and domestic.
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Everything2
April 7, 2003. Recorded in November of 1974 with The Band providing extremely tight musical backing, Planet Waves is a fine album which gets far less recognition than it deserves.
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Days of the Crazy-Wild
January 18, 2014. I think Planet Waves is an underrated album, but I also think the outtakes that we’ve heard are really cool.
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George Starostin's Reviews
A disappointingly flaccid album. Maybe teaming up with The Band wasn't such a good idea after all.
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Alastair Savage
September 18, 2013. For anyone who has never listened to the album before, I really recommend it as a complete immersive experience. It also features some of Dylan’s finest singing, putting the lie to those people who claim that his voice is a sort of nasal wail.
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NOOGA Today
June 21, 2014. "Planet Waves” is something of an oddity in Dylan’s discography. He recorded the entire album with fellow musicians The Band backing him and would go on to tour with them in support of the release. The songs weren’t overtly political-at least, not all of them-and they found Dylan dropping his stoic façade a bit and letting us in to a far larger extent than on past records. It was Dylan unvarnished and unapologetic and completely at ease with showing more of himself in the music than we’d come to expect.
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