Time Out Of Mind - Bob Dylan

Time Out Of Mind sees an emphatic return to form from Dylan after years spent in the wilderness and many mediocre albums behind him throughout the 80's. Released in 1997 this is a true testimonial of a grumpy old man who has reached the twighlight of his years and is confused about where he is and what he has become. Lyrically, I think this is one of Dylan's strongest albums, not just of his latter day career, but of all time. He has become much more focused in his writing and has lost some of the more cryptic writing of his earlier material. I know some regard it as a sin to ay, but I quite like understanding what he's writing about. Don't get me wrong, the ...  Read the complete review

I bought this album, Time Out Of Mind, not long after it came out. Oh I see it was 1997, time flies! I cannot remember what possessed me to buy it, I have never been much of a Bob Dylan fan in the past. I made the seemingly obligatory purchase of Highway 61 Revisited at one point but for whatever reason he just never really spoke to me. Heresy to many, I know. I even recall a roommate in college going to see the man play not long after his heart attack and thinking "I really should see him, just to have seen him", but I just couldn't be bothered, lazy oaf that I am. So I'm clearly not a reliable judge of the man's vast accomplishments. I watched a ...  Read the complete review

Time Out Of Mind is the album pretty much everyone was hoping Bob Dylan would make following 1989's magisterial, immaculate Oh Mercy. Like the latter, it is a stunning, swamp-water thick Daniel Lanois-produced masterpiece as wrenching and as touching as anything Dylan has ever done. Between the two albums, Dylan released the sorely disappointing Under A Red Sky and, much more pertinently, two sparse, acoustic collections, Good As I Been To You and World Gone Wrong, both comprised entirely of new recordings of age-old folk and blues standards. Time Out Of Mind is not an acoustic record, and it is compositions are Dylan's own, but it feels very much ...  Read the complete review

Next to Blood on the Tracks, 'Time Out Of Mind' is my favourite Bob Dylan album. It's harshness and intimacy is the album's main selling point. Daniel Lanois' deceptively simple production makes Dylan's music sound like those old scratchy blues tunes from the 40's adding to the classy sound of the whole album. The album's opener is the slow driving 'Love Sick'. Bob's voice is gruff and weary. I've seen Bob live and his vocal delivery is, how to be diplomatic - never that great. However, with Love Sick and a number of songs on the album, he's pitch perfect. The skiffle-esque second song 'Dirt Road Blues' is another great example of the style of this ...  Read the complete review

Phew, just read a few other reviews on the man himself, and suffice to say, i'm not really a "cool bob" fan. I'll perhaps speak to 20 dylan fans and maybe one of them will get what I get from him, so I'll try and explain my love for the Dylan here and in other reviews, but it's kind of like reviewing why your husband or wife is so great. Bob and I have had such an intimate and emotionally charged relationship for the past few years that I'll try and pick out some of the highlights. This album definitely contains some of them. I love bob dylan when hes dealing in emotion, not imagery, which is why I like a lot of his stuff from the later years when the ...  Read the complete review