Shot of Love
| Bob Dylan
Shot of Love
Shot of Love is the 21st studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on August 10, 1981 by Columbia Records. It is considered to be Dylan's last of a trilogy of Christian albums. Arrangements are rooted more in rock'n'roll, and less in gospel than Dylan's two previous albums.-Wikipedia
Critic Reviews
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Rolling Stone
1981. When I first heard it, Shot of Love sounded like Bob Dylan‘s most interesting record in a long time. Interesting, not good.
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Ultimate Rock
2014. The rock press, which was already wary of Dylan’s Christianity, dismissed the majority of the album, with the notable exception of “Every Grain of Sand.”
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All Music
Shot of Love finds Dylan still in born-again mode, but he's starting to come alive again -- which isn't as much a value judgment as it is an observation that he no longer seems beholden to repeating dogma, loosening up and crafting songs again.
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Vanity Fair
2013. It’s a mixed bag: sacred songs, secular songs, good songs, lame songs. You’d think a Dylan tribute to Lenny Bruce would set off some sparks, but the eponymous song includes some of the most insipid lyrics Dylan ever wrote.
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Damien Love
A spiritual searching and gospel slant remains, but shares space with a faith in the power of driving blues, rock’n’roll, and simple, battered old pop
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Warehouse Eyes
"Shot Of Love" is too uneven to be a classic Bob Dylan album, and that coupled with the fact that even die hard fans were apparently beginning to tire of his religious stance saw it slump commercially.
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George Starostin's Reviews
A decent effort: nothing new but some more enjoyable Christian music.
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Wilson & Alroy's Record Reviews
Dylan went with a big bunch of players again here, including Drummond and Keltner, Ringo Starr, Ron Wood, Duck Dunn, and Danny Kortchmar among many others. It didn't make much of a difference, at least commercially. (JA)
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itunes Apple Music
The last in Bob Dylan’s trilogy of Christian albums, Shot of Love finds the songwriter outgrowing his religious awakening and returning to songs that refer to romantic longing and uncertainty as much as holy faith.
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Mark's Record Reviews
Either way, you don't really need this record. It's mediocre to the point of being downright annoying.
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Consequence Of Sound
It’s not all about religion, as Dylan finds inspiration in a doomed counterculture icon on the piano ballad “Lenny Bruce”, for one, but the lasting impression is still one of piety.
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Adrian's Album Reviews
'Shot Of Love' is a good song and a good Dylan album. The good outweighs the bad and even with definite filler, Dylan sounds passionate about making a record here. It works very well.
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The Current
2017. on Shot of Love he returned to the appealingly shambling sound he perfected with the Band. He also backed off from the explicit, didactic preaching of Saved and reintroduced the surprises and ambiguities that make Dylan Dylan.
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The Daily Beast
2016. The final entry in Dylan’s Christian trilogy is worth it for two songs alone: “Lenny Bruce,” a piano ballad ode to the late counterculture comedian of the same name; and “Every Grain of Sand,” the heartwrenchingly powerful song about life, love, faith, and death.
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Robert Christgau
Dylan's abandonment of Muscle Shoals for the fleshpots of El Lay--Benmont Tench! Ron Wood! Ringo Starr on tom tom!--has a reassuring aura of apostasy, which may be why I think this year's born-again boilerplate "sounds better" than last year's.
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