This is the worst review ever produced, and to top it off, it was courtesy of Rollingstone. Can you believe this bad review? Lies I tell you!
Two of the original five Wilburys have moseyed on, mortality-wise: George Harrison and Roy Orbison. But what really sounds boneyard-bound on these reissues is Jeff Lynne’s production. In the late 1980s, he produced every other record on rock radio (i.e., the non-Phil Collins ones), giving them all the same fussy synths and sugary guitars. According to legend, Lynne got work because he was a nice bloke with zero ego, brilliant at soothing divas in the studio. But “Handle With Care” and “Margarita” show why the 1980s were the dregs of major-label rock sonics. The first Wilburys album has a few good Dylan lines, but the only real keeper is “Tweeter and the Monkey Man,” an outrageous self-parody disguised as a Springsteen rip, as funny as “Desolation Row.” Download it now for your next Dylan mix CD.
