Time Out of Mind - Dylan, Bob (CD 1997)

A lot of people have talked about this album as a revival of Bob Dylan's career, and I have to agree with them. His music from the 80's and early 90's is fairly uncompelling, but somehow on this album he manages to write a very good set of songs. Now, another thing people talk a lot about is Bob Dylan's voice. I don't know how people can dislike the singing from his folky days or Blood on the Tracks; when someone tells me they hate those albums, I have to resist telling them that I hate them. In High Fidelity, John Cusack's character says that "what you like is more important than what you're like", and in the case of Bob Dylan. If you think Blood on the Tracks is no good, there's no reason for me to talk to you ever again, no matter how alright you might seem otherwise.

On Time Out of Mind, however, it's a different matter, and I understand if someone doesn't like the album, although I do. Bob Dylan sounds like he's about to die; he hasn't taken care of himself, and it shows in his voice. For the kind of weary music he's singing though, it's perfect. He's had all these years to learn about life and learn how to sing in a way that PERFECTLY matches what he means, and it's taken a toll on his voice, so that his voice is often thin, usually defines the word "gravelly", and makes me want to go see him live to make sure I get to before he shuffles off this mortal coil. Still, for someone with the right taste, this album is a beautiful thing to listen to.

The musicians on here are like the musicians on most Dylan albums. Although there are collobarations like the Basement Tapes, a typical Bob Dylan solo album is going to be focused on Dylan himself, and the musicians are just there to get across whatever ideas he wants them to. The music is typical of the Dylan folk-blues-rock melange, and it's played well. Most of the songs have Dylan singing and playing guitar, one of a number of drummers laying down a pretty basic beat, Daniel Lanois playing a guitar part, Tony Garnier doing some nice work on the bass, Auggie Meyers playing the accordion. There are also a number of other guitar players, and Jim Dickinson doing a few keyboard parts. Everyone plays in a reserved fashion, letting Dylan do his thing out front.

For the most part, this is an album of sad songs. There aren't really any up-tempo songs with the energy of "Tangled up in Blue" or "Like a Rolling Stone". This is a mature album, from a mature Bob Dylan. He's not angry like he might have been on an older album; he sounds like he believes that things just are the way they are. He sings about suffering, sickness, abandonment, darkness...all the classic themes of the blues that have moved on into rock. One of the best examples is "Trying to Get to Heaven", where he sings lines like "every day your memory grows dimmer/it doesn't haunt me like it did before", "you broke the heart that loved you/now you can seal up the book and not write anymore", "when you think that you've lost everything/you find out you can always lose a little more" "they tell me everything is gonna be alright/but I don't know what alright even means". It's a beautifully melancholic song, written in the fabulous couplets that Bob Dylan can do so well. Sometimes he goes one way and then turns back, and sometimes he reinforces the gloom of one sentiment with an even stronger statement.

One of the potential problems with an album like this is that the doom and gloom can be overwhelming and seem purposeless after a while. I'm not that miserable; I have a lot of things making me happy. Right before I left for college in Virginia, I made a mix-tape for my girlfriend back in New Hampshire, and that process made me happy, but for a while I was in a quandary. She liked Bob Dylan from hearing him in her art class, but she didn't really have any songs that stuck out, because she just let it flow while she sculpted. Bob Dylan is one of my favorites, so with the surety that she liked him, but didn't already know all his stuff, I had to include him on the tape. I wanted to use this album, just to see how she liked the more recent Dylan, and to use something a little bit obscure, but most of the songs are just SO DEPRESSING..."I just don't know what to do/I was alright til I fell in love with you" or "You left me standing in the doorway, crying", didn't convey what I wanted, although there certainly have been times I felt that way (not recently, but way back...oh yeah).

Thankfully, there is one song on Time Out of Mind that sticks out as a great love song: "Make You Feel My Love". While other songs contain little bits that make me think of Katie, this whole song was just right, especially as it begins with: "When the rain is blowing in your face/And the whole world is on your case/I could offer you a warm embrace/To make you feel my love". It's such a good song, and she liked it even more than I expected; it's her favorite song on the whole tape. When I was home for Thanksgiving, we listened to Bob Dylan together, and it was WONDERFUL. Maybe her and I can go to a concert, assuming that a man with a voice this close to death can make it to another summer.

So, this is a very good album. Sometimes the blues aspect of it is too much, but I always want to hear "Make You Feel My Love", and there are times when I'm in the mood for a full 74 minutes of blues. Yes, Bob Dylan gets all the way to the limits of a CD in 11 songs, with the help of the opus "Highlands", which stretches on and on, feeling like an existentialist "Lily, Rosemary, and the Jack of Hearts", keeping in mind that existentialist, to me, mostly means "I don't understand this". I enjoy this album as both a return to the past greatness of Bob Dylan and a movement new direction for him, albeit one based on the very old traditions of folk and blues.