Time Out of Mind

Daniel Lanois's production adds an ambient feeling to the album. Its a mixed bag: For the ballads (which tend to be the odd numbered tracks), the ambient touch gives the songs a certain distance that really emphasizes the loss and the sorrow in the lyrics. It helps these songs immensely. For the improv blues tracks (which tend to be the even numbered tracks), I'm not so sure that a more forward production would've been more beneficial, to give the production a rawer feeling. Irregardless, to me, it's not enough of a distraction to seperate the listener from the lyrics. Some listeners may view this differently.

I'm a big fan of blues in itself; what Bob Dylan has done with this album is amazing, if you look at it from a blues angle. The album is NOT very folk-rock oriented; if you come into this album expecting "Highway 61 Revisited", you are probably going to be disappointed. In my opinion this album is best appreciated with repeated listenings. You will then appreciate what its got: simple lyrics and simple music that produce a powerful impact. A masterpiece of a different kind, proving that Bob Dylan is incredibly talented at writing music from the heart, even 30 years after he began.


Elvis was right...   July 14, 2006
Mr Q
22 out of 22 found this review helpful

...Costello that is. Who once said that he thought this was Bob Dylan's best album. Everyone guffawed at Costello's hyperbole at the time. I mean better than 'Blood on the Tracks'? 'Highway 61 Revisited'? 'The Times They Are a Changin'? 'Blonde on Blonde' for God's sake? Well now it's nearly 10 years old and it just gets better and better. It doesn't have the shock factor that those earlier issues had but rather it just seeps into you over repeated listening. It's subtle and quietly profound. It's the best album he ever made.


A Genuine Masterpiece   May 8, 2007
Charles Foster Kane (New York, USA)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful

"Time out of mind the piratical proas of the Malays, lurking among the low shaded coves and islets of Sumatra, have sallied out upon the vessels sailing through the straits, fiercely demanding tribute at the point of their spears." Herman Melville "Moby Dick"

We can't know for certain that Dylan took the title of this landmark CD from Melville's classic novel, but we do know that, based on his statements, he has read Melville, along with other classics. Dylan's sensitivity towards words is matched in the great classic literature. The phrase, "time out of mind" means, according to Merriam-Webster's Third International Abridged Dictionary, "time immemorial."

This recording is one of Dylan's best, if not his very best. Upon repeated listenings, one hears greater and greater depth, as Dylan, adopting a somber tone, ruminates upon his own mortality and the sadness of life's disappointments.

The songs and production perfectly capture a contemplative Dylan, an Everyman of sorts because he has the genius to give artistic voice to feelings that so many people can relate to. The opposite of pop art and pop junk, the music on this recording reaches great levels of feeling. Comparing the work on Time Out of Mind to typical popular music is like comparing the psalms of King David to Hallmark Greeting Card sentiment.

Time Out of Mind reinforces Dylan's legacy as the minstrel poet of his generation. Highly recommended and destined to be among Dylan's most enduring works. In my humble opinion.


A dark, poignant classic   July 15, 2001
11 out of 12 found this review helpful

With "Time Out of Mind," Bob Dylan has created a masterwork of longing and regret that stands with the best of his legendary career. More than the poignant, frightening ruminations of a man nearing 60, "Time Out of Mind" is the particular product of Dylan's fertile imagination and musical pedigree. You could not imagine it being anything but the offspring of the same heart and mind that begat "Blonde on Blonde" and "Blood on the Tracks."

Dylan sings with the blues-soaked intensity of a late-night confessional, the architecture of which can be credited to Daniel Lanois' clean and reverentially hushed production. Virtually every track is an exercise in hard living and the settling of emotional accounts. Standouts such as "Dirt Road, "Cold Irons Bound" and "Not Dark Yet" are among Dylan's most haunting and affecting efforts.

As he is occasionally wont to do, Dylan sprinkles in a couple of throwaway numbers; these do not serve to detract from the album so much as to illuminate the extraordinary depth of the other songs, such as "Highlands," a 16-and-a-half-minute talking blues that closes the release and finds Dylan surveying his own charred emotional landscape.

"Highlands" is heavy stuff for sure, particularly when Dylan spots a group of kids drinking and dancing on the public green and longingly admits, "I'd give anything to turn back the clock"; or when he brutally acknowledges, "The party's over, and there's less and less to say." Yet throughout the song Dylan leavens desperation with his unique deadpan wit and ornery sense of perseverance, as when he blasts Neil Young on the stereo, only to be admonished by his neighbors, or when he slyly observes he wouldn't know the difference between a real blonde and a fake. These are the moments you realize "Time Out of Mind" is not so much a last will and testament as it is an affirmation of the beauty borne of pain.

"I been to Sugar Town and I shook the sugar down," Dylan sings in the beautifully wistful "Trying to Get to Heaven." His words assume an almost oracular power, possessing a force that cuts to the heart of the mystery and complexity that have been hallmarks of Dylan's career. As seemingly dark and depressing as it sounds on the first few listens, "Time Out of Mind" is ultimately an act of inspired defiance by an elder whose wit, grit and wisdom flow ever more clearly and forcefully from the wellspring of a bruised heart and a battered psyche.