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I Need You is the first CD this Dylan-influenced North Carolina outfit has recorded since Dylan's
Time Out of Mind, so it stands to reason that Jennyanykind's fifth album should bear the markings of His Bobness reborn. The brothers Holland (Mark and Michael) achieve their greatest hero worship to date with the consuming malaise of "It's a Wicked World"--a dead ringer for new-school Dylan, minus Daniel Lanois's shabby-chic production values. The pleasures of
I Need You don't end there. It's taken six years, and half as many record deals, but Jennyanykind have finally shed their trademark stiffness (a friend used to refer to them, with just cause, as Jennythreefourtime) and come to terms with their own limitations. To wit, "Acoustic ... Ambient" is a valiant stab at a
John Fahey-esque meditation. Of course, Jenny don't have the chops to match the master, but it's mightily endearing to hear them try. Maybe there is success in failure after all.
--Matt Hanks