Time Out of Mind
click the image to get it in cd-cover size
| Release Date: |
September 30, 1997 |
| Label: |
Sony |
| Rating: |
4.5 |
Description: At the beginning of
Time Out of Mind, Bob Dylan finds himself in the same dead-day world as on 1964's "One Too Many Mornings." By now, though, he can't be bothered to romanticize the street and the distant dogs' barking; he can only moan about how sick he is of love, of himself. Saying it seems to give him the strength to go on, and go on he does, over 11 songs that are among his most plainspoken and musically eloquent. The reconstituted bottle-blues that sparked the early '90s acoustic masterpieces
Good As I Been to You and
World Gone Wrong carries over to Daniel Lanois's carefully dirty production and a groove that tops anything Dylan's done in a studio since, at least,
Blood on the Tracks. No matter how lousy he feels, this is the work of a mighty, mighty man.
--Rickey Wright
Tracklist of Time Out of Mind
Reviews:
His best ever? Of course not.
This is a very moody, atmospheric album. Superb production job by Daniel Lanois. Excellent work by the backing musicians. And Lanois applies some effects to Dylan's voice that manage to make it listenable for the first time in a long while. (It still ain't pretty but given the subject matter of most of the songs the harsh, mournful vocals are rather quite fitting.) This album is undoubtedly Dylan's best work in a long while; probably since "Infidels" and definitely since "Oh Mercy". But it isn't his best ever - not by a long shot. Given his lacklustre string of albums for about a decade or so prior to this release (i.e "Knocked Out Loaded", "Under the Red Sky", "Down in the Groove", etc.), I think people were so pleased that this one wasn't another stinker that it garnered more praise than it deserves. (Calm down, people - I still think this album is great and smokes 99.99% of all other albums released by any artist in the past 20 years). The lyrics are among the least cryptic in Dylan's career. He's getting old and feeling down about it. That's the whole album pretty much summed up right there. I think he (and Lanois) do a tremendous job of getting that across, but, that's it as far as the "message" goes here. And since aging and regret are what this album is about, it is rather depressing to listen to. (Calm down again: depressing songs can be - and often are - good art.) The highlights are probably "Cold Irons Bound" and "Make You Feel My Love". The latter has one of the most gorgeous melodies that Dylan has ever composed. Beautiful chord progressions. This is without question an essential album for Dylan fans. But, it may be his dreariest ever. ("The Times, They Are A-Changin" would be a close contender.) There are at least a dozen other Dylan releases I'd recommend ahead of this, including his next release, "Time Out of Mind".
The Best Ever
People toil with the idea that Dylan may be the greatest songwriter in American music history. They put him with James Taylor or Neil Young, but I think this album proves his timelessness, it proves the fact (that some of us have known for some time now) that Dylan is infinite, Dylan is beyond it all. Dylan is Dylan.
Time Out of Mind ~ Bob Dylan
This 1997 release is very good, but no it is not some of his best stuff. His vocals are not as good as they were years past and that is why it gets 4 instead of 5. His lyrics are as good as they have always been, but the vocals are a big question mark. They sound very weak. The sound is nice and laid back and good music to listen to and drink some whiskey after work. The book-let is an insult to good taste and it is quite shoddy as is the front photo. It is out of focus and looks like a 10 year old kid decided to play around with a camera. I like the fact though that one can see who played what on each track. This is a quite good album.
