Personnel: Bob Dylan (vocals, acoustic & electric guitars, harmonica, piano); Robert Britt (acoustic & electric guitars); Daniel Lanois (acoustic & electric guitars, mando-guitar); "Bucky" Baxter (acoustic & pedal steel guitars); Duke Robillard (guitar); Cindy Cashdollar (slide guitar); Jim Dickinson (Wurlitzer piano, pump organ, keyboards); Augie Meyers (accordion, organ); Tony Garnier (acoustic & electric basses); Winston Watson, Jim Keltner, David Kemper, Brian Blade (drums); Tony Mangurian (percussion).
Recorded at Criteria Recording Studios, Miami, Florida.
TIME OUT OF MIND won the 1998 Grammy Awards for Album Of The Year and for Best Contemporary Folk Album. "Cold Irons Bound" won the 1998 Grammy for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance.
This album by the quintessential singer-songwriter comes after a long layoff from recording original material. Dylan's previous two albums were powerful collections of traditional songs, and the album that preceded them was full of some rather iffy original tunes, so all eyes were on Dylan to make one of his patented surprise comebacks. As luck would have it, that's exactly what TIME OUT OF MIND turns out to be. Produced by Daniel Lanois, who manned the boards for Dylan's best latter-day album, OH MERCY, this one has the kind of raw, spontaneous vibe that serves Zimmy's music so well.
Loss and world-weariness abound in the lyrics, and Dylan articulates these emotions perfectly, in a manner that seems simultaneously casual and precise. Songs like "Standing In The Doorway" and "Million Miles" are bathed in sorrow and emotional desolation, but are so well-crafted that their solipsism is irresistible. An all-star cast including Ry Cooder and Duke Robillard provides the sparse, rough-edged, bluesy accompaniment that casts Dylan's compositions in the perfect musical light. Bob's back!
What the critics say...
Rolling Stone (5/13/99, p.66) - Included in Rolling Stone's "Essential Recordings of the 90's."
Rolling Stone (10/2/97, pp.53-54) - 4 Stars (out of 5) - "...TIME's perspective is that of an outsider speaking to an absent confidant....a more fully realized version of OH MERCY....Dylan has made a coherent, sonically striking but equally subdued ensemble album..."
Spin (9/99, p.134) - Ranked #29 in Spin Magazine's "90 Greatest Albums of the '90s."
Spin (1/98, p.86) - Ranked #5 on Spin's list of the "Top 20 Albums Of The Year."
Spin (12/97, p.154) - 9 (out of 10) - "...the whole shebang is pretty terrific, stuffed with the fun freedom of train-song rhythms; swampy, organ-studded soul; boyish ballads; and worn-out blues. Hearing them all, you get the sense of a loner's road trip....These are the thoughts of a pilgrim, and he's headed to the grave..."
Entertainment Weekly (10/03/97, pp.80-82) - "...Dylan's songwriting is at once blissfully assured and gleefully uneven throughout....Dylan sounds lively, even playful--in no way is this album a downer. It sounds as if, at 56, he can't wait to be a full-fledged old codger..." - Rating: A+
Q (10/01, p.67) - Ranked #24 in Q's "Best 50 Albums of Q's Lifetime"
Q (12/99, p.92) - Included in Q Magazine's "90 Best Albums Of The 1990s."
Q (1/98, p.112) - Included in Q Magazine's "50 Best Albums of 1997."
Village Voice (2/24/98) - Ranked #1 in the Village Voice's 1997 Pazz & Jop Critics' Poll.
Mojo (Publisher) (p.67) - Ranked #4 in Mojo's "100 Modern Classics" -- "Quivering guitar tremolos and crepuscular keyboards frame a cavalcade of blues-inflected poignancy..."
NME (Magazine) (9/27/97, p.55) - 8 (out of 10) - "...his most intriguing album for quite a few years....The songs slow-crawl with the finest licks money can buy..."
