This is the ILM poll of the last four Bob Dylan records

TOOM still does it for me. I'm a sucker for Lanois cod-swamp production gumbo, I guess. But LaT and MT are wonderful, as well (not quite feeling the new one as much yet).

MT

What I said on the other thread:

Time Out of Mind is like the nineties Knocked Out Loaded in its production/artist mismatch. Or maybe it isn't a mismatch: three quarters of the songs are tentative, unmelodic things by a singer who's coaxing them to life.

"Love and Theft" wins, handily -- one of his top five. I remember how elated I was when I first heard it.

I hadn't heard "Tell Tales Signs" until a couple of days ago; it might be my favorite of the lot!

LaT will always be associated with soundtracking a very strange drive from Chico, CA to Bend, OR on 9/12/01. Not a bad thing, mind you.

Love and Theft. One of the best records anyone's ever made.

Love and Theft by a quite large margin. Than maybe the new one, followed by Time Out Of Mind with Modern Times far back in the distance.

I hadn't heard "Tell Tales Signs" until a couple of days ago; it might be my favorite of the lot!

If you need proof of how good Dylan's been the last two decades this album will do it. A lot of good stuff on this.

Love and Theft should probably win, but I'd hate to see a blow-out. Modern Times is almost as good and Time Out of Mind is just a hair behind that.

Stakes are high on Time Out Of Mind.

Time Out Of Mind would have been better if Bob had met that Jack Frost dude.

I mean, gotten that Jack Frost guy to produce.

yeah--i agree. the songs are still great and spooky, though. i voted Love and Theft

what a buncha Lanois haterz on this thread.

i like his production on it, but it would be cool to see what would have happened if he produced it himself. i was reading how Lanois hated Cold Irons Bound the first time he heard it and said something like "just what the world needs, another Dylan song with a two note melody" i think it's pretty weird and unfair to criticize Dylan for not having enough melody--i mean, melody is one of the last things i listen to the guy for.

I voted Love and Theft, and think it's up to the standards of the best of his 60s albums. It's more versatile than Time Out of Mind, in that it works in more circumstances as a listen; Time Out of Mind works me only on gloomy days (I know judging albums in terms of their mood-inducing qualities is lame but it's where I tend to come from, not being a critic).

Sometimes the spookiness works. I like how Dylan's voice is the only thing holding "Not Dark Yet" and "Tryin' To Get to Heaven" together; meanwhile four or five guitar parts, keyboards, and a violin more or less fail to cohere around him.

The "Masked & Anonymous" soundtrack has a few examples of what TOOM woulda sounded like w/o Lanois. And the TOOM outtake stuff on Tell Tale Signs, too -- Lanois produced it, but didn't mix the stuff from that release, which may make all the diff. I like the murk/gloom/chaos of Time Out of Mind -- not that I want all Dylan records to sound that way, but I think it's got the right mood for the songs.

For me, the whole Time Out Of Mind record exists to just set the stage for Highlands.

that is a good way of looking at it!

what a buncha Lanois haterz on this thread.
― tylerw, Thursday, April 30, 2009 7:49 PM

hell yes. L&T all the way.

I should get a Neighborhoodie: LANOIS PRODUCTION HATA

next thing there'll be an outbreak of Mitchell Froom hate.
Kidding, I hate him too.

haha I actually like Froom way more! Latin Playboys, yum. (and Hidalgo is on the new Dylan; circle complete)

there's an old interview with jim dickinson where he talks about turning up to play pump organ and various stuff on the dylan record, and getting freaked out when he saw two pedal steel players playing together, like he'd never seen anything like it before. the syrup of that record's sweet - standing in the doorway's so downbeat. TOOM anyhow.

note total lack of enthusiasm about the new one--shared by me, too. love the opening cut, though. (xpost)

One of Froom's clinkety clankety organ runs would have enlivened TOOM something great.

I still like TOOM, btw--I like stoic doomy raging Dylan as much as funny Dylan or whatever else. I just never want to play it.

fair enough!
in case anyone needs to fill in any holes in 21st Century Dylan, I've got a nice comp of his non-LP stuff on my itunes that i can upload if there's interest. You know, for those of you who didn't pick up the Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood sdtk.

what song's on there?

xpost

Of course there's interest. There's always interest.

I'm voting for Together Through Life since I know it so well.

P.S. Soto, I talked about you on the Little Creatures poll thread.

What kind of poptism are you accusing me of this time, you rogue?

Only love.

roffles: "You're the ILM keeper of the mature, Apollonian, usually 1980s, well-produced, well-made song."

Thanks, sweets.

Modern Times.

I love loverman Bob.

Would have been nice to have saved this poll for maybe a little longer than two days after the release of the new one though.

songs are:
Things Have Changed
Cold Irons Bound (M&A version)
Return To Me
Train of Love
Down in the Flood (M&A version)
Can't Get You Off Of My Mind
Tell Ol Bill
Red Cadillac and a Black Mustache
Huck's Tune
Diamond Joe
Can't Escape From You
Mutineer
Waitin' For You
Cross The Green Mountain
Dixie

*raises hand*

aight, PM me and I'll send a link ...

"Time Out of Mind" has some massive, funky bass. That's certainly one reason I keep returning to it. Lanois might err on the side of murk, but the guy loves the low end.

(I haven't heard the new one, but I still vote "Love and Theft")

"Time Out Of Mind". Daniel Lanois gets the best out of him.

Your mom gets the best out of him

"Your Mama, She's Been On My Mind"

"It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding"

I haven't heard the new one yet and I've never heard all of TOOM (I know, what kind of Dylan fan am I?), so maybe I shouldn't vote. Very close call between MT and LaT, but I'm giving it to MT.

New one is streaming at (ugh) Paste..

http://www.pastemagazine.com/blogs/av/2009/04/album-stream-listen-to-bob-dylans-together-through.html

I just went out and got the new one, so maybe I'll hold my vote and give it a chance.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Didn't vote, but the right winner.

this seems like the right order IMO

yeah, i think so too, though as noted above, we'll see how Together Through Life holds up. It's only been out a week!

no way. it's clearly MT, L&T, TTL, TOOM. i voted for the latest 'cause that's the one i most want to hear these days.