Bob Dylan – Time Out Of Mind

Loved this album since the evening I first heard it back in 1997. A masterpiece still. I wasn't going to get it but I went into a record store in Vancouver looking for old Bob records and the guy working there asked me if I had heard the new one yet. I said no. He says "It's good". So I went and bought it and Hendrix South Saturn Delta, thinking if I didn't like the Dylan, I at least had the Jimi to not disappoint me. Instead, it was TOOM that blew me away and most people at the time. It won the Grammy because it was by far the best album. Could McCartney write "When you think that you've lost everything, you find out you can always lose a little more?" The singing is expressive, some of the best he did up to then. Anyone who says this album is plodding didn't really listen and is not a reviewer to take seriously. In 1997, this album was the beginning of a comeback of sorts for Bob. He never went away but this album showed people that Bob was back with a vengeance and that he still had it. The album summed up the end of the grunge era. Full of heartache and hard times. This was the album that represented me and a lot of people back then. It well deserved a Grammy win. The detractors can suck it.

Stunned to see crappy negative reviews about this album. What a killer reinvention for Bob. This album is everything. I feel every feel. The band is top notch. Everything is top not and true. Just a great sound. I will forever love this record.

Holt sh*t what a long, plodding & boring album. It boggles my mind that it beat out Paul McCartney's "Flaming Pie" for the grammy that year.

Not dark yet. One of the greatest pieces of all time.

A good album but overproduced. At times you just want to tell it to calm down and speak to you normally.

This is Dylan's 30th album issued in 1997, and the second album produced by Daniel Lanois just after "Oh Mercy" (1989). When one listens to it for the very first time, it might sound strange and not easily accesible, although according to Clinton Heylin it sounds like a Lanois CV. Actually, as Dylan explained it in an interview in Guitar World Magazine, the main goal was "to make a record that sounds like a record played on a record player", and it just works out.
Strong bluesy numbers included here ("Love sick", "Million miles", "Cold irons bound" for instance) and undisputabely some of the most beautiful ballads ever written by Dylan ("Standing in the doorway" and the famous "Not dark yet"). What is remarkable here is the beauty of the lyrics poetry and the outstanding beauty of the music itself. Among the very best musicians in the world took part in this masterpiece, featuring Cindy Cashdollar, Duke Robillard, Jim Keltner etc.
The album was isssued on Vinyl LPs (out of print now) and CD (still available) and the sound is extremely different: paradoxically rough on vinyl format and clean on CD format; i think it's better and accurate on LP.
Sometimes an artist is able to misjudge his own work: Dylan told his dissatisfaction about the final result. Nevertheless, "Time out of mind" is a genuine masterpiece: the album won 3 Grammy awards including 1998 best album of the year, it was ranked #1 in the "Village Voice" 1997 Critics' Poll, and made "Uncut" magazine's Album of the year. It ranked #408 in the RS 500 Greatest Albums of All Time and is mentionned in the All-TIME 100 Albums. All these awards it did truly desserve.