Time Out Of Mind released: Sept 30, 1997 BUY

In 1997, Dylan released his first album of new compositions since Under The Red Sky, the amazing Time Out of Mind. Produced, like Oh Mercy, by Daniel Lanois, Time Out Of Mind is set in a spooky, subaqueous aural medium that quavers around Dylan’s stripped-to-the-bone vocals like the light in an aquarium. Through this oddly-lit gloom, Dylan sings with shocking candor about a world come loose from its moorings, of exhaustion, emptiness, aimlessness, lost love and the prospect of death. There is an honesty and directness here that is liberating for both the listener and the singer. His vocals are as strong, as focused, and as pure as anything he had done for years. The album contained moody ballads (“Make You Feel My Love,” “Not Dark Yet,” “Standing In The Doorway”), blues-based quasi-recitatives (“Million Miles” “’Til I fell In Love With You” and the 16 1/2 – minute “Highlands”), and a few scalding, claustral explorations of the borderline of sanity, “Cold Irons Bound” “Love Sick,” and “Can’t Wait.” In addition there is the beautiful and unique “Tryin’ To Get To Heaven,” with its haunting line, “When you think that you’ve lost everything/You find out you can always loooooose a little more…” The buzz surrounding the album’s release brought Dylan to a wider, and younger, audience than he had enjoyed in years. The album sold millions and earned Dylan a Grammy Award for Album of the Year (his first ever.) Love Sick | listen | Dirt Road Blues | listen | Standing In The Doorway | listen | Million Miles | listen | Tryin' To Get To Heaven | listen | Til I Fell In Love With You | listen | Not Dark Yet | listen | Cold Irons Bound | listen | Make You Feel My Love | listen | Can't Wait | listen | Highlands | listen |