Customer Reviews

Time Out Of Mind

5 star:		(103)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

I don't like to write a long review...Buy this CD and you'll make your own opinion...Another production by Daniel Lanois (Oh Mercy in 1989) and it's an other success.

Listen to Dirt Road Blues and Trying to get to heaven !

5 stars ....

Time Out Of Mind is a masterpiece of atmospheric mood music and evocative imagery, expressed in moody blues numbers and melodious ballads. This mix of blues and ballad is reminiscent of the style of many Tom Waits albums. Although I prefer the folky ballads, the album forms a cohesive musical statement with an impact that lingers long after the last notes have died down.

The bluesy tracks include Love Sick, the almost talking blues Million Miles and Can't Wait, and Till I Fell In Love With You which in its undulating rhythms is midway towards being a ballad. The instrumental mix and arrangements on all of these are raw and gripping and will have great appeal to those who love blues music.

Despite its title, the uptempo Dirt Road Blues is a fast lilting ballad with a catchy tune. The tone changes for the next song, the melancholy and soulful Standing In The Doorway with its stirring organ and absorbing imagery. I suspect this one will eventually take its place as one of the most memorable songs in his oeuvre. Likewise, the beautiful Tryin' To Get To Heaven has elements of autobiography and haunting poetic phrases that stick in the mind.

There is something darkly prophetic about the shimmering Not Dark Yet, a song of ominous foreboding and weary resignation with sublime poetic lyrics, whilst Cold Irons Bound with its driving beat is closer to a rock song. Not surprisingly, Make You Feel My Love is a straightforward and tender love song, and the album concludes with Highlands, a mid tempo rumination with understated jangling guitar.

Working with Lanois previously produced the 1989 masterpiece Oh Mercy and this one is another winning combination. The mood is mostly somber and reflective, perfectly captured by the production which lends added gravitas to the sentiments expressed. Time Out Of Mind is definitely amongst Dylan's top ten works, a truly timeless masterpiece.

It may be getting dark, but it isn't yet.
With the dark, dense "Time Out Of Mind", Bob Dylan finally delivered a truly great record again, superbly produced by Daniel Lanois.
Many of Dylan's 80's albums were marred by slick, glossy production, but this time the grit hasn't been sanded away, and Dylan's atmospheric songs sound appropriately raw and ominous.
And "Time Out Of Mind" is by far the strongest collection of music Dylan has put out since the 70s. The instrumentation is sparse, and the songs are blues and slow rock, highlighted by the raw, up-tempo "Dirt Road Blues", the sinister "Tryin' To Get To Heaven" and "Not Dark Yet", and the beautiful ballad "Make You Feel My Love", one of my favorite love songs.
But everything is worth a listen, really, making "Time Out Of Mind" one of the rare latter-day Dylan albums which truly meets his high standarts.
4 1/2 stars - highly recommended.

I've had this album for several years and just picked it up again. Now I can't seem to stop playing it. This CD is absolutely wrenching in its despair--"When you think you've lost everything, you find out you can always lose a little more" but ultimately redemptive--"The sun is beginning to shine on me." It is sad, very sad, but occasionally weirdly funny.

"Time out of Mind" is not an easy listen, but rewards the attention.

For the longest time, I thought Dylan's best albums were ones released in the 1960s and up to the mid 1970s.
Sure, there were newer releases that I thought bordered on greatness like Infidels and Oh Mercy but still I thought they were on the outside looking in.

Time Out of Mind has forced me to revise my opinion.
It not only breaks into that inner circle but, in my view, solidly shoulders its way among some of Dylan's greatest albums.

Daniel Lanois adds a subtle touch of atmosphere and nostalgia but he doesn't overdo it. The grittiness of that gravelly voice is never polished away. The album is thematically more melancholy and laid back but it never gets boring because each track is very different from one to the next.
Captivating and highly enjoyable from beginning to end.

This is a very good album, however much of it is for reasons which stand apart from Dylan himself. It is the combination of Bob and Daniel Lanois that make this a great album. The songs are good, no doubt, but without the absolute brilliance of Daniel's production the finished product would not be half as good.

To my ears this album has some of the finest production EVER in rock music. It is the atmosphere of the songs that make it a great album- the sublime interplay of the guitars, the subtle interjection of secondary instruments.

It's funny but listening to it in 2006 the vocals actually sound quite good. Bob's funny that way, it is often only retrospect that we come to understand the quality of his work. I would have given it five stars but personally I find there are a couple weak tracks- Dirt Road Blues is a throwaway and I don't really like Highlands too much, but I would still give Bob much credit for releasing an album of this quality so late in his career. Ditto for Love and Theft and a few kudos for Modern Times which I think is the weakest of the three.

Best Dylan album since "Blood on the Tracks".....That one I'd give a 10 if possible.

Time Out Of Mind is a ripper dipper return to some sort of form from da mang who had set his sails for pissing his reputation away for good, but for me it is a tad too bleak and a little samish all da way through... it be a brilliant album don't get me wrong, n I can see why everyone hails it as a masterpiece n schitt, but I don;t know it's too similar for me all the way through... joo know, slow ballady song followed by dark fast blues song followed by ballady song followed by dark fast blues song followed by ballady song followed by dark fast blues songballady song followed by dark fast blues songballady song followed by dark fast blues songballady song followed by dark fast blues song, etc.

This album's loveliness has wounded me - I'm reelin from the blow... Yes I'm a dedicated Bob fan and this is a definitive piece that is not even remotely depressing to me. Bob has always defied traditional songwriting and this is no exception. 'Highlands' is in fact a hilarious song/spoken word that is an example of the man's brilliant diversity. No other artist could win a Grammy for such inanity. This one ranks up there with the best of his works if not at the top.

Had to write this after reading the negative reviews. This is a beautiful album, one of Dylan's best--as is Time Out of Mind. The critics are sometimes wrong--but not these two times. Mississippi and Po' Boy are my favorites on the former; Not Dark Yet, Standin' in the Doorway, and Tryin' to Get to Heaven on the latter. Listened to Time out of Mind the whole time I was writing my first book--helped get me through. There is no one better in popular music, and never has been.