Album: Time Out Of Mind
Recorded: January 1997
Released: September 1997
The late 90s were a great time for Bob Dylan fans. Not only did he make a powerful comeback with this double LP, but on top of that an official recording of his legendary 1966 Manchester Free Trade Hall performance was released a year later, in 1998. Fortunately for me, these two album releases coincided with my first few years at university – up until then, I'd listened to several classic Dylan records from the 60s and 70s, but after this release I got the sense of an artist still at the peak of his powers and also had the luxury of time as a student to explore his back catalogue more fully. Whenever I hear the insistent jab of the guitar line on album opener Love Sick, I'm always transported back to my poky room in first-year student halls.
The first 6 tracks of Time Out Of Mind alternate between more accomplished, atmospheric, expansive songs and tighter, prosaic blues numbers. Dirt Road Blues is arguably the least accomplished song on the record, but it's quickly followed by the masterly Standing In The Doorway, which finds Dylan love sick again but also full of resilience ("I know I can’t win, but my heart just won’t give in"). Heartbreak is also the core theme of 'Til I Fell In Love With You, with its raw guitar jabs sounding like blows to the heart. Million Miles is one of the more ordinary numbers on the record, expressing a sense of alienation from a lover, while the lovely Trying To Get To Heaven explores mortality and a growing sense of loss ("When you think that you've lost everything, You find out you can always lose a little more").
The sense of mortality and loss deepens on Not Dark Yet, the start of a run of 5 stone cold classics (with the possible exception of Can’t Wait) that close out the record. Dylan says that he feels like he's down at the bottom of a “world full of lies” – 20 years later, in the post-truth era of 2017, he might be feeling that even more sharply. Not Dark Yet was one of two singles from the album and, like many of the songs on Time Out Of Mind, it was written after dark, inspired by the Biblical quote, "Work while the day lasts, because the night of death cometh when no man can work". By this time, Dylan may have turned his back on organised religion, but this album finds him meditating on humanity's weaknesses like never before. Faced with his mortality, he sings, "I was born here and I’ll die here against my will / I know it looks like I’m moving, but I’m standing still", a line that respected literary critic Christopher Ricks compares to John Keats' Ode To A Nightingale. Dylan, as ever, refuses to interpret his songs in interviews, saying the album was "more an aural experience than a literary one".
Other songs like Cold Irons Bound, with its clattering rockabilly drums, and Tryin' To Get To Heaven have a haunted tone that's deeply indebted to the blues. That said, Dylan has always contended that the album isn't as dark and despondent as some critics have tried to make out. Make You Feel My Love (famously covered by Adele) is a burst of positivity and light, while Highlands is poignant and funny, especially the conversation between the narrator and waitress in the café.
Dylan says he stole a country blues riff from Charley Patton for Highlands, and a line or two from Robert Burns, but it's the panoramic lyrics that steal the show, as he references Neil Young and envies the young ("I'd trade places with any of them in a minute if I could") and holds up a mirror to a chaotic world. As Richard F. Thomas expertly details in his book, Why Dylan Matters, Highlands can be seen as a sequel to one of Dylan's great songs, Tangled Up In Blue – both tracks explore similar situations but different outcomes, with Highlands Dylan now feeling older and more alienated from the world around him, though he does find contentment by the end of the song.
Time Out Of Mind was well received by critics, seen as a huge return to form by fans (old and new) and showered with awards. For me, the production and arrangements are superb, while the songwriting ranks among Dylan's best – the album has little or no filler and flows so seamlessly that it's long duration never feels like an endurance test. It's a record about the desolation of lost love and mortality, from a 56-year old man who sounds heartsick and weary, but who is constantly evolving and using this pain as inspiration for his songwriting renaissance.
Album rating: A
Recorded: January 1997
Released: September 1997
Songs / length: 11 / 72:50
For Time Out Of Mind, Dylan reignited his working relationship with producer Daniel Lanois (who had recorded Oh Mercy in 1989). Dylan played Lanois some Slim Harpo records to give a sense of how he wanted the album to sound, which Lanois describes as a "natural depth of field", involving "somebody in the front singing, a couple of people further behind and somebody else way in the back of the room". There's also an impromptu feel to the record, the result of Dylan improvising many of the songs with his backing musicians like guitarist Duke Robillard, organist Augie Meyers and bass guitarist Tony Garnier. Dylan has voiced some reservations about the album in later interviews, saying there was a sameness to the songs and that "swampy, voodoo thing that Lanois is good at", but Dylan has often tried to de-emphasise the influence of his producers, notably Lanois.
The first 6 tracks of Time Out Of Mind alternate between more accomplished, atmospheric, expansive songs and tighter, prosaic blues numbers. Dirt Road Blues is arguably the least accomplished song on the record, but it's quickly followed by the masterly Standing In The Doorway, which finds Dylan love sick again but also full of resilience ("I know I can’t win, but my heart just won’t give in"). Heartbreak is also the core theme of 'Til I Fell In Love With You, with its raw guitar jabs sounding like blows to the heart. Million Miles is one of the more ordinary numbers on the record, expressing a sense of alienation from a lover, while the lovely Trying To Get To Heaven explores mortality and a growing sense of loss ("When you think that you've lost everything, You find out you can always lose a little more").
The sense of mortality and loss deepens on Not Dark Yet, the start of a run of 5 stone cold classics (with the possible exception of Can’t Wait) that close out the record. Dylan says that he feels like he's down at the bottom of a “world full of lies” – 20 years later, in the post-truth era of 2017, he might be feeling that even more sharply. Not Dark Yet was one of two singles from the album and, like many of the songs on Time Out Of Mind, it was written after dark, inspired by the Biblical quote, "Work while the day lasts, because the night of death cometh when no man can work". By this time, Dylan may have turned his back on organised religion, but this album finds him meditating on humanity's weaknesses like never before. Faced with his mortality, he sings, "I was born here and I’ll die here against my will / I know it looks like I’m moving, but I’m standing still", a line that respected literary critic Christopher Ricks compares to John Keats' Ode To A Nightingale. Dylan, as ever, refuses to interpret his songs in interviews, saying the album was "more an aural experience than a literary one".
Other songs like Cold Irons Bound, with its clattering rockabilly drums, and Tryin' To Get To Heaven have a haunted tone that's deeply indebted to the blues. That said, Dylan has always contended that the album isn't as dark and despondent as some critics have tried to make out. Make You Feel My Love (famously covered by Adele) is a burst of positivity and light, while Highlands is poignant and funny, especially the conversation between the narrator and waitress in the café.
Dylan says he stole a country blues riff from Charley Patton for Highlands, and a line or two from Robert Burns, but it's the panoramic lyrics that steal the show, as he references Neil Young and envies the young ("I'd trade places with any of them in a minute if I could") and holds up a mirror to a chaotic world. As Richard F. Thomas expertly details in his book, Why Dylan Matters, Highlands can be seen as a sequel to one of Dylan's great songs, Tangled Up In Blue – both tracks explore similar situations but different outcomes, with Highlands Dylan now feeling older and more alienated from the world around him, though he does find contentment by the end of the song.
Time Out Of Mind was well received by critics, seen as a huge return to form by fans (old and new) and showered with awards. For me, the production and arrangements are superb, while the songwriting ranks among Dylan's best – the album has little or no filler and flows so seamlessly that it's long duration never feels like an endurance test. It's a record about the desolation of lost love and mortality, from a 56-year old man who sounds heartsick and weary, but who is constantly evolving and using this pain as inspiration for his songwriting renaissance.
Album rating: A
Comments