Say what you want about
Empire Burlesque
-- at the very least, it's the most consistent record
Bob Dylan
has made since
Blood on the Tracks
, even if it isn't quite as interesting as
Desire
. However, it is a better set of songs, all deriving from the same place and filled with subtle gems -- the most obvious being
"Tight Connection to My Heart (Has Anybody Seen My Love?),"
but also
"Emotionally Yours"
and
"Dark Eyes"
-- proving that his powers are still there. The rest of the album may not be as graceful, but it's still well-crafted songwriting that never fails to be interesting. The record's biggest flaw is its state-of-the-art production; this is every bit as slick as
Street Legal
, but now sounds more focused and more of its time -- thanks to a reliance on synthesizers and mildly sequenced beats -- than it did upon its original release. All this makes
seem more transient than it actually is, since -- discounting the production -- this is as good as
Dylan
gets in his latter days. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine