It shares the same band as Together Through Life and it sounds fucking great it is arguably Dylan's best production work (this automatically puts it above Saved). Its purpose is clear, whether you like the constant droning hum of freakishly festive jingle bells or not: it's a straightforward record of traditional Christmas songs (in the vein of Bing Crosby). Christmas In The Heart (2009): Christmas In The Heart isn't a weird album. Even with a few hidden, um, not-terrible-songs ('Death Is Not The End,' 'Rank Strangers To Me'), this is as minor as minor gets.ģ3. 'Silvio,' a paint-by-numbers blues trifle, was considered its best song at the time. It's an album of outtakes and rejects from the previous five years of half-hearted starts and stops. In the words of Jarvis Cocker, this is the sound of someone losing the plot. This album is the sound of him scraping the bottom of the barrel. He was either preaching Christianity, reaching for the MTV audience, or starring in unloveable movies with Rupert Everett. But he struggled badly, and not behind-the-scenes like in the early '70s. The Bootleg Series has revealed just how many good songs he was recording throughout the decade.

Down In The Groove (1988): People overestimate how bad the '80s were on Dylan. This proves once and for all that literally anything is better than Saved.ģ4. Fuck this album.Īnd yet, it's still better than Saved. It hates you so much, it ends with the shitty version of 'Spanish Is The Loving Tongue' ( the solo piano version is heavenly though). This is the red-headed stepchild of Dylan's studio discography. Outtakes from New Morning & Self Portrait-and not even the GOOD outtakes. Dylan (1973): No approval from Dylan for release. This is Dylan's nadir (but I maybe have a soft spot for 'Solid Rock,' or at least the live versions of it).ģ5. This was probably the real 'Judas!' moment for long-time fans (Especially ironic since Dylan is basically calling everyone else in the world a 'Judas' on this record). Most unforgivably, it has really bad lyrics. Saved (1980): The perfect storm: fervent proselytizing, boring songwriting, and the worst production of his career. This is of course ridiculous and subjective, so feel free to argue-or respectfully tell me to go fuck myself-in the comments below!ģ6. Outside of the bottom three or four, every Dylan album has some sort of redeeming quality to it (or at least something that makes it interesting). This time, everything has been placed into five groupings based on the rankings of the most valuable precious stones (because.diamonds in the rough?). Just like with David Bowie, we've decided to honor the occasion by putting together a ranking of all 36 of his studio albums (that means no live albums, no Bootleg Series, no compilations). Bob Dylan celebrated his 74th birthday last weekend, hopefully by dining on some Turkish Marvin.

Bob dylan discography numberd