Listed below are the overall rankings for the best albums in history as determined by their aggregate positions in over 58,000 different greatest album charts on BestEverAlbums.com! (Chart last updated: 3 hours ago).
"People underestimate the musical quality of Dylan's albums because of how great he is lyrically. There is nothing further I can add on the subject of lyrics, but for such a big artist to release a record that was this raw and urgent without sacrificing any of its immediate accessibility is stunni...""People underestimate the musical quality of Dylan's albums because of how great he is lyrically. There is nothing further I can add on the subject of lyrics, but for such a big artist to release a record that was this raw and urgent without sacrificing any of its immediate accessibility is stunning. This record is a speeding train, each song chugging along at an alarming rate, with so much going lyrically that it's easy to miss some of the musical nuances. I honestly don't think keyboards have ever been put to better use in pop music, and some of the melodies are astonishingly complex for somebody who is supposedly lacking musically. But yeah, whatever. His voice is shit or something."[+]Reply
"The way I feel about this album is best represented by the scene in High Fidelity in which Jack Black's character, Barry, describes not owning it as "perverse." That about sums it up. Song for song, this is finest folk rock album ever made. "Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands" is probably the highligh...""The way I feel about this album is best represented by the scene in High Fidelity in which Jack Black's character, Barry, describes not owning it as "perverse." That about sums it up. Song for song, this is finest folk rock album ever made. "Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands" is probably the highlight for me, but there's not a weak track here."[+]Reply
"1 December 2013 "Blood On The Tracks". It's an album almost synonymous with maturity and the absolute expression of all the nuances of love and loss. It's an album that I notice I love more and more as my life ticks along. When I first heard it at the age of 12 I didn't get it. I didn't see what ...""1 December 2013
"Blood On The Tracks". It's an album almost synonymous with maturity and the absolute expression of all the nuances of love and loss. It's an album that I notice I love more and more as my life ticks along. When I first heard it at the age of 12 I didn't get it. I didn't see what was so great about it. And even now to this day, I feel their is a more relatable feeling I get from his 60s music. I am 24 years old as I write this. Dylan was 21 and 24 when he made my other 2 favorite albums of his. Is that all it comes down to? Perhaps.
As for this album, well it's a legendary piece of art. It transcends my amateur description. There are just so many themes and details and emotions that are expressed here. The album is a roller coaster, it takes you through all the highs of love found and all the lows of regret. And in the end you leave this record wiser than when you entered.
To name the highlights is basically to name off every track. It's literally that great. The songs that just absolutely gut me every time I hear them are "Simple Twist of Fate" (perhaps one of the most sobering songs ever), "You're A Big Girl Now", "Meet Me In The Morning" (so simple and beautiful and the fucking steel guitar and slide guitar at the end is pure aesthetic perfection), "Shelter From The Storm", and the closer "Buckets of Rain".
Oh and about this closer...it's perfect. I use that word "perfect" too much, I know. But this song AS A CLOSER is perfection. It's like a little nugget of almost simpleton-level wisdom that floats in and soothes us after the emotional journey of the rest of the album that just ended. It's so damn simple and playful and REAL.
This album feels so absolutely relaxed and natural. It's a grand example of the plain expression of very exact and thought-out art. It's an album that opens up more and more not only with each listen but also with each passing year of living. It's an album that is always there to help get me through.
Thanks, Bob.
Grade 100/100"[+]Reply
"Dylan's great leap forward. Bringing it all back home, is where Dylan goes electric, well, for at least half of it anyway. Quite why the first side is given over to the electric songs, and side two the acoustic, I thought it would be better the other way round. Anyway, as far as the first(electri...""Dylan's great leap forward. Bringing it all back home, is where Dylan goes electric, well, for at least half of it anyway. Quite why the first side is given over to the electric songs, and side two the acoustic, I thought it would be better the other way round. Anyway, as far as the first(electric)side,is concerned, it kicks off with one of Dylan's most iconic tracks. Subterranean homesick blues, is Dylan's waterfall of words pouring out of him in a kind of rock/rap phrasing. She belongs to me, is a lovely blues ballad, and, Maggie's farm, is a great track, Dylan's kiss off to his folk past? Love minus zero/no limit, is one of Bob's most beautiful tracks. If there is any weak moments, it's the last three songs on side one. All are blues rockers, with 115th dream, still nonsensically enjoyable. Of the acoustic side, Mr. Tambourine man, is off course fantastic, but my favourite Dylan song of all time is the stunning, it's alright ma, I'm only bleeding. Incredible, still floors me every time I hear it. It's all over now, baby blue, ends the album, another goodbye to the folkies, possibly? The most amazing thing about this album is that the next two records would be even better. Dylan at his peak, at this time, he was untouchable. "[+]Reply
"24 August 2013 - This is just about as perfect as it gets. This album just feels good, natural, real and off the cuff. At the same time it is perhaps the most beautifully varied set of songs Dylan ever put out. The break up songs, the social songs, the love songs, the talking blues songs, the blu...""24 August 2013 -
This is just about as perfect as it gets. This album just feels good, natural, real and off the cuff. At the same time it is perhaps the most beautifully varied set of songs Dylan ever put out. The break up songs, the social songs, the love songs, the talking blues songs, the blues songs, the cover songs are all immaculately performed and beautifully recorded. The some of all it's parts is just a complete musical experience that is so much deeper and richer and more reaffirming than any (almost) purely acoustic guitar/harmonica folk album should possibly be. This record is miraculously good. And Dylan was just 21 when he recorded this! WTF!?!?!!
Grade 100/100"[+]Reply
"Call out to non-Dylan fans: If you didn't care much for "Highway 61" or "Blonde on Blonde", be sure to check out this album before you pass up the rest of his discography completely. A totally different sound, both in terms of instrumentation (violin, accordion, mandolin and female background voc...""Call out to non-Dylan fans:
If you didn't care much for "Highway 61" or "Blonde on Blonde", be sure to check out this album before you pass up the rest of his discography completely. A totally different sound, both in terms of instrumentation (violin, accordion, mandolin and female background vocals as extra flavours) and vocal style (softer and less twangy, probably country-influenced too). Not to dismiss them at all, but you can actually listen to this album without paying any attention to the lyrics and still be enjoyed all the way through (and that's saying a lot with an 11 minutes epic, "Joey", that musically is quite repetitive) where I find his other albums sometimes get quite monotonous.
It certainly helped convincing me a lot to his music!"[+]Reply
"1964 was a turbulent year for the United States of America. Injustice violated the air with a stench that, at its best, resembled cigar smoke caked into waterlogged, whiskey-stained clothing. At its worst, it conjured the fragrance of rotting corpses piled into black plague mass graves. A societa...""1964 was a turbulent year for the United States of America. Injustice violated the air with a stench that, at its best, resembled cigar smoke caked into waterlogged, whiskey-stained clothing. At its worst, it conjured the fragrance of rotting corpses piled into black plague mass graves. A societal powder keg was ready to burst, sending shrapnel in the form of violence and revolution across the land. Chronicles of this time in history are aplenty, but Bob Dylan's 'The Times They are A-Changin' occupies a place of poignance and societal relevance as our newest decade commences. The greatest art tends to come rocket-strapped with perennial staying power and universal application. Bob Dylan's third LP effort slides comfortably into those categories and classifications. It touches upon righteous, homely, American ethnocentrism, the painful ineffectiveness of the justice system and selective poverty. Despite Dylan rejecting the label of "Protest Songs", journalists flocked to confine his writing to an ideological box that they could present to the curious and quick-to-judge public. Dylan coyly sat on the fence during interviews which felt more like police interrogations, never confirming or denying anything. Still, the lyricism said more than Dylan ever could, surely illuminating the fact that the poet staunchly sympathized with the plight of the racially suppressed and disenfranchised. The inner shade of Dylan's heart was never in doubt with his position usually reserved for artists of color, those with intentions of questioning the status quo when it came to inequality in the United States. To hear a mid-western, white youth comment on the hypocrisy of American military conquest, the hideousness of white nationalism and imbalanced nature of wealth distribution was refreshing to millions and for thousands more fortunate, feather ruffling. 'The Times They are A-Changin' is concurrently a pinpoint, flaming arrow aimed at the controversial topics of the 1960's and a philosophical thought cloud of ideas and wisdom. All this from a scrawny, Minnesota-born New Yorker who could seemingly wear both hats and walk in all kinds of shoes.
The record greets us with the eternal strums of an acoustic guitar as Dylan's voice, strained and imperfect, a survivor of house fire, arrives with its own visage. The seminal opener chugs along at a fixed tempo, adorned with harmonica bursts that enliven the docile guitar tones. The harmonica, a humble and inexpensive instrument that acted as a trusted companion for many, was Dylan's weapon of choice during his early years. He declares, "Come mothers and fathers throughout the land and don't criticize what you can't understand." His prophetic and anthemic rallying cry has endured for nearly 60 years since it first graced ears. The album turns to a significantly grimmer beast with the introduction of second track, 'Ballad of Hollis Brown', a look at a poverty-stricken farmer in rural South Dakota. Dylan takes his tale of desperation and uses it as an allegory for those struggling with destitution. The metaphors are intentionally fatalistic, but many could view them as exaggerated. Here, Dylan's goal is to establish perspective, not provide a factual retelling. It's merely a painting of despair to be learned from. Dylan sings, "Your brain is a-bleedin' and your legs can’t seem to stand; Your eyes fix on the shotgun that you’re holding in your hand." The expanding wage distribution, in Dylan's estimation, provides a slow death with one alternative. One of Dylan's darkest, yet powerful statements. Next, he confronts an extremely prevalent bias during the middle of the 20th century in the United States. 'With God on Our Side' creates an image of an elitist America, one that can do no wrong and is justified, no matter the bloodshed. Dylan sees toxic patriotism acting as a slow, indoctrinating cancer (another contemporary issue). He wails, "The First World War, boys, it came and it went; The reason for fightin' I never did get but I learned to accept it, accept it with pride; For you don’t count the dead when God’s on your side." The arrogance needed to assume God identifies with a specific country's crusade is elephantine, however, it's a belief typified by the Pledge of Allegiance and by swearing upon a bible. Dylan's character comes to the realization that God's love is reserved for people and not places and that a country is just a plot of land and nothing more. Sadly, it's usually the prize for which fighting is done. The Vietnam War enveloped the decade and Dylan's parable is forever an unheeded warning.
The second half of the record begins with 'Only a Pawn in Their Game', another narration confronting hatred and prejudice, this time by way of propaganda and inculcation. The track examines lower-income, white southerners who are brainwashed into hating their black neighbors with an end goal of sustained oppression. Dylan illustrates this with syntax, "A South politician preaches to the poor white man “You got more than the blacks, don’t complain; You’re better than them, you been born with white skin." The simple instrumentation of 'Pawn' and the stressed rhyme repetition make sure that the message doesn't get clouded beneath the music. However, Dylan doesn't refuse the chance to include a romantic ballad on the LP. 'Boots of Spanish Leather' is a letter-exchanged anecdote of longing and gradual realization. The song is tinted by delicately plucked strings and alternating perspectives that create a gloomy overtone that comes to fruition when the narrator surmises the final fate of his crumbling union across a vast ocean. "I’m sure your mind is a-roamin'; I’m sure your thoughts are not with me but with the country to where you’re goin." The record arrives at an uptick in morale with 'When the Ship Comes In', an affirmative, inspirational testification that the future holds brighter days and that those who engage in tyranny and bigotry will eventually be overcome. Finally, LP centerpiece, 'The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll', draws inspiration from the murder of an African-American barmaid by the wealthy William Zantzinger. The track directs scrutiny at the murderer for devaluing the life of a woman he deemed "lesser than" and the justice system for (mostly) turning a blind eye. Dylan delivers the verdict, "And handed out strongly, for penalty and repentance, William Zanzinger with a six-month sentence." The track is a microcosm of the record's major themes and an unsettling reminder that justice remains imbalanced.
Dylan was just 23 years of age when 'Times' was first pressed, but his incredible perception was decades his senior. The clairvoyance of his prose is even parts astonishing and tragic given that little has changed since his pen first hit the paper. The poetry of these 10 tracks easily sit amongst the scribe's most visceral compositions. The album presents Dylan at perhaps his most uncompromising and forthright, functioning as his final, unabashed protest record. Oddly, the LP is often shunned from the 1960's landmark music rolodex with albums such as 'Highway 61 Revisited', 'Bringing It All Back Home' and even 'The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan' achieving a higher sense of reverence. Strangely enough, its content makes it a contender for his most topical, underrated and pertinent enterprise, both in 1964 and 2021. Dylan's uncanny ability to find the pulse of the given zeitgeist has never been in doubt, as he's strung together lyrical encapsulations at will for 60 years. Here, he weaves sorrow and hope into a homogeneous, digestible whole the likes of which none could reproduce. The power of 'Times' does not lie in division, but in a belief that human morality will win out. It's a beautiful sentiment and an eternal principle. In some ways, we're still waiting.
"And we’ll shout from the bow your days are numbered
And like Pharoah’s tribe they’ll be drowdned in the tide
and like Goliath, they’ll be conquered."
-When the Ship Comes In
Standout Tracks:
1. The Times They are A-Changin'
2. The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
3. When the Ship Comes In
94.4"[+]Reply
"When time out of mind came out in September 1997, it had been seven years since Bob Dylan had released any original material, and that was the underwhelming, under the red sky. Since that mediocre album, Dylan released two acoustic records, a collection of covers of old blues and folk songs. He a...""When time out of mind came out in September 1997, it had been seven years since Bob Dylan had released any original material, and that was the underwhelming, under the red sky. Since that mediocre album, Dylan released two acoustic records, a collection of covers of old blues and folk songs. He also made an appearance on MTV's successful unplugged series. Dylan's performance though was again a disappointment. Dylan then started to suffer from health problems and was hospitalized for a time in 1996 with a heart problem. He made a successful recovery. So, after all of this it was a pleasant surprise that the new album was a much needed return to form. For the second time in his career, his new record was produced by Daniel Lanois, whose atmospheric soundscapes had made Dylan's, oh mercy, album such a success. He works his magic here too. Time out of mind though was different from other Dylan albums. Dylan was definitely older, maybe wiser, certainty grumpier, but still regained a mischievous twinkle in his eyes. The new record was dark, spooky, it was about loneliness, bitterness, aging, and mortality. The first thing you notice on opener, love sick, is Dylan's voice, it really is wrecked beyond repair, but it suits the material perfectly. He's the first of the rock stars to deal with the sadness and frustration of growing old. There's no better example of this than on the epic closing track, highlands, when Dylan alludes to, 'all the young men with the young women looking so good, well I'd trade places with any of 'em in a minute if i could'. This is coming from Bob Dylan, living legend, and this is the way he feels, he wants to be young again. Mortality, plays it's part in, tryin'to get to heaven, and, not dark yet, surely both inspired by his recent health scares. Everything and everyone is cold, he's standin'in the doorway cryin', he's sick of love, he left his life with someone back there along the line. Bob's not a happy camper. And what's more, he's running low, the party's over, he moans, and there's less and less to say, and everything looks far away, but it's not all doom and gloom, and there is some wonderful black comedy here and there, 'you don't read with binoculars, do you'?. The songs range from the slow burning, love sick, the railroad shuffle of, dirt road blues, the brooding, million miles,to the funeral dirge of, not dark yet, as well as, to make you feel my love, one of Dylan's most beautiful ballads for years, the metallic blues of, cold irons bound, and the midnight burning, can't wait. Time out of mind, is classic Dylan, it's up there with his best, a mortal masterpiece. "[+]Reply
"It's funny that most of the comments here allude to this being below par for Bob, and not on the same level as some of his other recordings. Personally I think that's absolute hogwash - this is Dylan at his very best; Dylan the mythologiser, Dylan the storyteller, Dylan the philosopher. Beginning...""It's funny that most of the comments here allude to this being below par for Bob, and not on the same level as some of his other recordings. Personally I think that's absolute hogwash - this is Dylan at his very best; Dylan the mythologiser, Dylan the storyteller, Dylan the philosopher.
Beginning with the opener and title track, Dylan weaves a series of telling tales about his life and his career as told through the point of view of others. The title track is no more about John Wesley Hardin than it is about Dylan the protest-singer, or at least the one which the media chose to portray. It may seem like a simple tale of a Robin Hood-esque noble outlaw, but the song itself acts as a metaphor for Dylan's own exploits, or at least some exaggerated version of them as dreamed up by those raving, quasi-religious "followers" he was so reluctant to acknowledge in the first place. In the final verse he appears to switch to something more accurate, at least in terms of his opinion of himself and the way he could confound expectations and hopes others had of him ("no charge held against him could they prove"). And why, of all people, choose John Wesley Hardin anyway? The man was apparently so mean that he once killed a man for snoring (though this probably didn't actually happen), so why choose his name for a tale about a noble outlaw? My opinion is that Dylan chose Hardin for his reputation as a self-mythologiser, a man who would wilfully embellish his stories in order to make them more exciting, just as Dylan has been wont to do. (Anybody who seriously believes Chronicles to be a work of accurate autobiography needs their head checked.) Dylan even looks like a noble outlaw on the cover, enhancing the idea that he sees himself as Hardin, or at least the Harding of this song and this album. What people often dismiss as a series of cute folk tales and ditties, ones which I've been told pale in comparison to his apparently more focused and passionate paeans to love or justice, are arguably his most personal (or, perhaps more accurately, his most self-referencing) works, those in which he puts himself smack bang in the middle of the story, even as somebody else entirely.
And we see this happen throughout the record. Dylan is the lonesome hobo who has served his time for everything except begging on the street (or is he? Would he really admit to not trusting his brother?), who in turn is the accused drifter. He is both the joker (whose wine is drunk by businessmen and whose earth is dug by ploughmen, without gratitude or recognition of his worth) and the thief (who understands that life is but a joke). Whilst he is defiant in the face of accusations (he is no martyr), he feels the pressure of expectation, the guilt that perhaps he played along and performed his role, even going so far as to bowing his head and crying in the (imagined) presence of St. Augustine (who wasn't, in fact, martyred - perhaps more mythologising on Dylan's part).
Perhaps the album's two most striking moments, the parable 'The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest' and the piano-driven 'Dear Landlord', appear to be about Dylan's relationship with his management. Judas Priest tries to force Frankie to accept his offer "before (it) all disappears"; Frankie, in his attempts to join Judas in his beautiful home, dies of thirst. Did Dylan sell his soul? Is that what he's admitting to? Or is it just a precursory warning about the trappings of fame, about mistaking paradise for that home across the road? But later, on 'Dear Landlord' (frequently thought to refer to God, but that reading doesn't wash with me, it seems far too confrontational for that), he warns that he's "not about to move to no other place". Perhaps he likes the home after all. "If you don't underestimate me", he states to the Landlord, "I won't underestimate you" - perhaps a grudging respect, or just a necessary compromise.
Not all of the album's songs are so dense with cryptic tales and biblical imagery (in fact, on first inspection, not many of them seem remotely cryptic at all, but that's another story). Album closer 'I'll Be Your Baby Tonight' is a simple love song, much more in line with the stuff he'd record on Nashville Skyline, often regarded as this album's sister. That may be true musically (both definitely take their cues from roots and country music), but thematically the two couldn't be more different. Here we have Dylan the shapeshifter, the defiant myth-buster, the mischievous myth-maker, whereas on Nashville Skyline we see Dylan the hopeless romantic. And the music here is much more sparse, darker, naked. On Nashville Skyline there's a certain decadence musically, Dylan basking in the Nashville sound, with all its twangs and rhinestones. Here Dylan lays his soul bare, over fittingly austere accompaniments, often nothing more than a few shuffling guitar chords. Where The Band - whose Music from Big Pink I see as more of a sister album to John Wesley Harding than anything else - used roots music as something expansive and out-of-time (sounding at once centuries old and yet of the present, as though it has no time of reference at all, the musical equivalent of a tree that stands for hundreds of years), Dylan here uses roots music as something small and insular, music to share stories around the campfire to.
Which is, essentially, what this album is. It's Dylan sharing his stories around the campfire, his fears and his guilt, and his pride in forever confounding expectation. This is Dylan the man, and Dylan the myth. This is Dylan the honest, sharing his thoughts as nakedly as he ever would, so long as you're willing to dig a little.
Or maybe - just maybe - this is Dylan the deceiver, singing simple folk tales for his followers to dig into forever more, in futile search of some deeper meaning that simply isn't there. Maybe - just maybe - I've been duped, and this album does, in fact, pale in comparison to his earlier works. And maybe - just maybe - the little neighbour boy was right; "nothing is revealed"."[+]Reply
"Wow! What a special album this one is. This record is so personal and real. It was such a hard left turn in terms of theme in comparison to "The Times They Are A-Changin'". I personally love this more introspective vibe on here. Overall I will say this album isn't quite as consistent as its prede...""
Wow! What a special album this one is. This record is so personal and real. It was such a hard left turn in terms of theme in comparison to "The Times They Are A-Changin'". I personally love this more introspective vibe on here.
Overall I will say this album isn't quite as consistent as its predecessor. This albums only weakness, if slight, is I don't personally feel it flows perfectly throughout. I don't love the transition from the openly funny "Motorpsycho Nitemare" to the masterpeice of introspective poetry "My Back Pages", as an example.
Still none of the tracks here are less than very good and the High point - "My Back Pages" is about as beautiful an expression of a songwriter ever recorded. And the other highs like "Chimes of Freedom", "Black Crow Blues", "To Ramona", "Spanish Harlem Incident", "Ballad In Plain D" and (no matter how many times I hear it) "It Ain't Me Babe" present practically a clinic on how one goes about being mysterious, sensitive, emotive, intelligent, poetic, sincere and never too serious about oneself all on one album. Truly this is just another fucking peice of genius from The Genius.
Grade: 91/100"[+]Reply
buzzdainer | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +8 votes (8 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
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Mercury | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +5 votes (5 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
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Mother Nature's Son | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +9 votes (9 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
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DriftingOrpheus | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +5 votes (5 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
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Skinny | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +14 votes (15 helpful | 1 unhelpful)
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