I recently saw that movie A Complete Unknown starring Timothée Chalemet as Bob Dylan. It centres around Dylan’s early career and climaxes with his controversial move towards electric guitars, and the ensuing blowback from the traditional folk music world.

I saw the film not because I’m a huge Bob Dylan fan, or even a huge Timothée Chalemet fan, but rather because it was showing at an outdoor amphitheatre in a beautiful location and my wife and I were without the kids for a while. We probably would have gone regardless of which movie was showing.

One crucial detail made watching the movie particularly interesting: it was dubbed over in French.

My wife and I understand enough French that we basically understood it, but it was a bit of a mental workout. Lines that were mumbled, or lines that used turns of phrase that only native speakers would catch at speed, went fairly quickly over our heads. A character would quip something, and while I was trying to decipher meaning, everyone in the audience would chuckle knowingly. I would then summon a “ha…hmm” to show that I also understood the witticism.

And then of course, whenever there was a scene in which Dylan/Chalemet was performing, the singing was in English. With French subtitles.

The final complicating factor me personally was that the whole time – the WHOLE time – I was sitting there with “Dance” by Foxwarren stuck in my head.

Foxwarren is a Canadian band fronted by singer-songwriter Andy Shauf, who was featured here 199 weeks ago. Foxwarren’s first album was just about to win a Juno when Covid stopped everything, and it wasn’t until this year that they released a follow-up.

That follow-up, simply titled 2, is quickly becoming the soundtrack to my summer. Or at least, the soundtrack to my experience of watching the Bob Dylan movie dubbed over in French.

What makes this a beautiful song:

1. Like Bob Dylan, Andy Shauf is a masterful lyricist with a very unconventional singing voice. But whereas I can barely stand to listen to Dylan singing, I find Shauf’s voice perfect for the characters he creates. When he sings the line, “all I really wanna do is dance” it might be the laziest, most off-beat utterance ever recorded of a lyric about dancing.

2. Like Bob Dylan, Foxwarren switched up their technology for this album. Many of the tracks are the result of the band’s experimentation with a sampler. The odd coupling of laid-back folk and sweeping, schmaltzy 1950s movie soundtracks create a distinctive mood throughout.

3. The unexpected echoing silence at 1:35 feels like you’re being launched into a dream.

Recommended listening activity:

Dancing, but only in your head.

Buy it here.

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