Rock and Roll Gets a Kick in the Pants

I know this may sound odd, but I was ready to declare Dig Your Own Hole the best rock album of 1997. I know what you're thinking... "Dylan! It's a dance album, stupid."

It's a lot more than that, friends. It's the rebirth of rock and roll.

Let me explain. Rock and roll was born a visceral, heart-stopping musical form, stopping people in its tracks and getting butts either moving or running for the door. In the past decades, as politics have bogged down the art form (not that political messages in rock are BAD, per se... it just leads to some pretty boring stuff... like most of Live's music), it has lost it's sense of fun, it's lust for life.

The Chemical Brothers single-handedly brought that joy back with their Big Beat dance music (a form of techno they've since backed away from). The whole point of Big Beat is to tweak the "cliches" of rock and roll... knowing what is going to get the crowd most riled up... getting people to "throw their hands in the air" and wave them like they used to.

And from the brain bashing funk of "Block Rockin' Beats" to the psychedelic swirl of "Setting Sun," the Chemical Brothers can't help but get the butts moving and the hands waving. Sure, it has its quiet moments, like a gorgeous ballad with a then-unknown Beth Orton, but shouldn't every rock show have a point where the crowd can calm down, stretch, and get ready for more?