I Ranked All Of Bob Dylan's 2000s Studio Albums (+ more bootlegs!!)

[@NickJardine]

Neil Young tier list! You do a great job on these. Knowledgeable, informative, opinionated, but not snobby. Kudos!

[@DustinLowmanMusic]

Thank you so much!! Neil is definitely on the way.

[@nicolaskohli4193]

Leonard cohen tierlist would be a total plesure to watch. And some close analysis over some dylan's albums or songs would be great to. Thank you for the video

[@4thtimearound11]

Love and Theft has always been one of my favourites. Mississippi is one of his greatest songs imo. Would love to see a Dylan live album and bootleg series ranking!

[@DustinLowmanMusic]

Those are definitely on the way!

[@elievans5065]

Excellent work as always! I'm sure it's already been said, but anything relating to The Band would be pretty spectacular. They have a superb catalog. It would be quite appropriate with the recent passing of Garth Hudson as well.

[@DustinLowmanMusic]

I don't immediately know their catalog as well, but like many of these, I'd relish the chance to get into it!

[@toupeereno2448]

Excited to hear your takes on the standards trilogy. Shadows in the Night in particular is one of his finest works in my opinion. In fact, Tempest through R&RW contain all my favorites. Also excited to hear what you think about Tempest, seems to get more mixed reactions than R&RW. Probably the vocals, but I love everything about that album Jesus. Perfect track list, perfect sequencing. My god.

[@DustinLowmanMusic]

I've been re-listening to flesh out my opinion! Nice to have an excuse to listen closely to this material.

[@jamesegan2742]

Wow, what excellent commentary! Just love and respect your intelligence and insights! I treasure Love and Theft and Modern Times…both 5 star S tiers for me…and really enjoy Together Through Life…Bob having fun with his buddy! It’s all good! Really hope we get official Bootleg releases of some or all of the 2000 shows you reference. Great series, thank you! Best, JPE

[@DustinLowmanMusic]

Sooner or later the Bob camp will release literally everything they have in the vaults 😂 thanks for watching and for the kind words!!

[@garad123456]

I waited for this part to see where you rank Love and theft. Not only you placed it on the correct tier but you made more accurate observarions of it than most make. You worded exactly what I had been thinking but could not put to words.

[@DustinLowmanMusic]

@@garad123456 I’m so glad to hear that!!

[@JunkyardFox]

I think Aint Talkin is such a tremendous song, an epic.

[@DustinLowmanMusic]

It really is!

[@haskellcameron]

Dustin, great video! I resonated a lot with your appreciation for "Love & Theft" and hope that one day you might appreciate "Streel-Legal" through a similar lens. You described "Love & Theft"s lyricism as: Postmodern renderings of the subconscious of the American south in the 1930s. There are similar formulaic tactics used in the curation of the songs for "Street-Legal" (i think 😆) Although they are something more in the realm of: A 1970s rendering of romantic tragedy with a fusion of Renaissance mysticism and the soul of the American frontier converge.

[@DustinLowmanMusic]

I like your description. Street-Legal has gotten a lot of love since I posted this - I'll at a minimum give it another few listens.

[@davidfinch652]

the way you talk about Dylan's writing has a poetics unto itself -- I didn't know I needed this caliber of analysis. Thank you / looking forward to more videos!

[@DustinLowmanMusic]

That's so sweet. Thanks for watching and for the kind words!

[@Official_Coolmaster]

What's you're opinion on the travelling willburys and do you plan to do a mini tier list on them

[@DustinLowmanMusic]

Generally pro! It’s sort of a silly project but not without charms, and a couple really brilliant heights. I’ll find a way to include them at some point!

[@suartgilmour4540]

Really liked your take on Love & Theft. Well done, sir! Bit harsh on TTL. Personally love Forgetful Heart and It's All Good. Don't usually check out bootleg shows, so I found that part interesting. Thanks, fun watch, as always.

[@DustinLowmanMusic]

My pleasure - thanks for watching!

[@seanmetcalfemusic]

Been enjoying these tier lists Dustin but am keen to get myself a copy and listen to of all the BD albums before you rank them on your vids. Until now so far so good but will need to get a copy of Christmas in the Heart before I watch this one Cheers

[@DustinLowmanMusic]

@@seanmetcalfemusic very honorable method!

[@Pughausen]

What you mentioned about Bob's setlists being a bit like Bingo cracked me up. I got to go to my first Bob show last year, and as I became a Bob fan, my first favorite song of his was Ballad of a Thin Man from Highway 61, for that to close my very first Bob show really galvanized a deep appreciation for him and his work.

[@DustinLowmanMusic]

He tends to really bring it when he performs that song live. I think it really touched a nerve for him as a composer.

[@martineldritch]

I still go back from time to time to two videos from Christmas in the Heart; the Must Be Santa video and the amazing watercolor-animation for The Little Drummer Boy

[@DustinLowmanMusic]

Both very well-made videos!

[@matm4331]

Well done as always...I am not a songwriter but as someone approaching 60, my world view is more settled on understanding rather than confusion or frustration. That's not to say that I've stopped questioning but decades of observation have coalesced into acceptance that there are some truths that no amount of cynicism will change so I stopped exerting energy in those directions. Bob fought his own songwriting for such a long time and maybe he just had to let a few things go that were eating at him. Seems that his 60 minutes interview at this time covers some of this....thanks for posting...

[@DustinLowmanMusic]

Despite being relatively far away from 60, I can relate to the psychological phenomenon you're describing. I think that bridge from youth to old age is always an awkward one for creatives - but if they can get peacefully into that latter camp, beautiful things happen.

[@bratman5096]

Another possible video idea, apropos the 2000s, is one about Masked and Anonymous. Such a weird artefact.

[@DustinLowmanMusic]

Yeah I was thinking I'd eventually rank and/or review all the films he'd been in.

[@AlexanderGreensmith]

First upload since I subscribed! Look forward to many more pal ✌️

[@DustinLowmanMusic]

Hey thanks!!

[@mikekwon8825]

Please do the official bootlegs tierlist (1 ~ 17) after his studio stuff!

[@DustinLowmanMusic]

Most definitely!

[@garrethspinn6266]

Hey I’d love a guided tour on unreleased NET concert bootlegs. I’ve been diving in but there’s so much it’s hard to know. Maybe a deep dive on soundboards that are around and/pr HQ audience recordings.

[@DustinLowmanMusic]

I was thinking of doing like 100-level, 200-level, 300-level Bob content (following the college course level system). That would definitely be 500-level content but I am more than here for it!

[@reillylawrence7129]

Would be interested to know your top 10 Dylan songs

[@DustinLowmanMusic]

What a task that would be. I am going to do some kind of top 10 videos, but I'm not sure what the themes will be yet.

[@ResidentWiseacre]

“Christmas in the Heart” is one of the few Christmas albums I will listen to any day of the year.

[@DustinLowmanMusic]

In that case my friend, Christmas is well and truly in your heart

[@stephenmaxner1275]

Excellent, again. How about a love song tier list as attached to the specific women the songs were written for and those stories as we might know or surmise them. Bob would love that, right?

[@DustinLowmanMusic]

That's a great idea!

[@jamesmartin521]

i would love a live album tier list

[@DustinLowmanMusic]

It's coming!

[@OrggsOrggs]

Dusty is killing it here! Love and theft is legit.

[@DustinLowmanMusic]

First commenter to call me Dusty. Probably not the last 😂

[@AleksZimmermann]

Together through life was also the first Dylan album that I bought at the time it was released (maybe that’s why I has a special meaning to me)

[@jav749]

Waiting for a Bruce springsteen tierlist

[@DustinLowmanMusic]

Oh it's coming

[@NikitasVenizelos-e7g]

@@DustinLowmanMusicNext? He has to be next

[@DustinLowmanMusic]

@ maybe!

[@CarburetorCountyProductions]

@@DustinLowmanMusicA Tom Petty/Heartbreakers tier list would be great too. Also wonder where the Wilburys albums would fit into the Dylan list

[@DustinLowmanMusic]

@ not sure yet with Wilburys, but do wanna talk about them. May do Petty someday, I’m just less deeply educated on his catalog.

[@CurtisVos-e6i]

Hey Dustin! Fun idea for a future episode: 10 Bob out-take songs that should have been on the album, plus what should be swapped out. (Obvious) example: Blind Willie Mctell (and possibly Foot of Pride) from the Infidels sessions to replace (....your opinion here, maybe Union Sundown or Man of Peace). Cheers!

[@DustinLowmanMusic]

Oh that's a fun one - I love the idea of kicking songs out 😂

[@lloydgriffiths7111]

books about Dylan tier list request!

[@DustinLowmanMusic]

@@lloydgriffiths7111 registered!

[@roberthieber1]

Enjoy your content. Next do James Taylor albums?

[@DustinLowmanMusic]

I'll add him to the list!

[@aaronbrogan4970]

oooo this is what ive been waiting for - Tell Tale Signs the goat though

[@DustinLowmanMusic]

Unbelievable album

[@YonderComesSin]

Modern Times ranks among my top three favorites. Nearly perfect, but two or three tracks share similar tunes. Notable tracks consist of "Thunder on the Mountain," "Spirit on the Water," "When the Deal Goes Down," "Workingman’s Blues #2," "Beyond the Horizon," "Nettie Moore," and "Ain’t Talkin’."

[@DustinLowmanMusic]

We're going to do Nettie Moore at my next Cafe Wha? show. Very excited for that one

[@folicallychallenged]

great video! I dont really have nothin to say but wanted to boost ur algorithm lol

[@DustinLowmanMusic]

😂 😂 that is among the most valuable things that a fan can do! Thank you!

[@folicallychallenged]

@@DustinLowmanMusic no problem man. u made me feel important for hitting 40 keys and pressing enter

[@davidg5629]

Great, but I think John Wesley Harding deserves top tier. Pat Garrett Main Theme is so good. You can almost hear logs crackling the hearth.

[@DustinLowmanMusic]

Those instrumentals on Pat Garrett have just never done it for me. JWH's poetics likewise - I like it a lot, but it doesn't feel like an absolute stylistic peak.

[@bookdmb]

We have very similar takes on the evolution to Love and Theft from Time Out of Mind. It reminds me of Kid A into In Rainbows. Regardless, another great decade for Dylan.

[@DustinLowmanMusic]

That's a great comparison

[@Pencilman246]

I came to appreciate Bob’s covers more after reading a review of the Christmas in the Heart album that lauded it as the perfect encapsulation of Bob’s central mission which is to reinterpret and push forward the American folk tradition. I’m not sure how true that is but it made me consider Bob as a performer rather than as a songwriter who just performs. Previously I thought “what’s the point” when he put out covers. Also Jack White used to do a cool cover of One More Cup of Coffee with the White Stripes so I bet that’s why he chose that song.

[@DustinLowmanMusic]

"Reinterpret and push forward the American folk tradition" is actually a great encapsulation of Bob's overall mission. Besides that, he also just does excellent covers - he often renders covers more respectfully than his originals.

[@EthanRoseKuntz]

I’m not sure how familiar you are with his discography, but I would love a Willie Nelson Tier list from you at some point. I’m slightly offended to see Christmas in the Heart in the same tier as the debut but I respect the take.

[@DustinLowmanMusic]

I don't know it super well but I'd relish the chance to dive in!

[@harryricca987]

Dustin have you made a definitive Bob playlist we can all listen to?

[@DustinLowmanMusic]

@@harryricca987 I haven’t but that’s a great idea!

[@schatzmatt78]

I bought "Time Out of Mind" and "Love and Theft" basically the days they came out (I guess I didn't go to Tower Records on 9/11/01), but buying these albums new and the impact they had on me as a person in my early 20s, there is no way I could ever put TOOM over L&T. But I love them both. I love Po' Boy.

[@ResidentWiseacre]

I picked it up on the night of 9/11. The news was playing in the store it went to. It was surreal to say the least. It took a few day before I could really listen to it.

[@DustinLowmanMusic]

@ High Water everywhere, indeed.

[@odo_25]

Dylan’s version of Must be Santa is probably my favorite version of the somg

[@briantronsgaard1423]

Dylan is copying Brave Combo's version.

[@nathanielvalla6142]

Whenever Bob Dylan and Robert Hunter team up, it's like meeting up with your old friend to get coffee. Sidenote, I would also love to hear some your favorite covers of Bob Dylan's song.

[@DustinLowmanMusic]

Covers would be a great one - I have many pretty controversial opinions!

[@snaslansmammamia4976]

Love the "friend hopping over for a cup of coffee" analogy for Together Through Life. Also, I'm 36 and Love & Theft is probably my fave Dylan album. I also think that you should only be allowed to perform "Mississippi" once you've reached +60 years old. Singer's gotta have age to express the weight/heft of that song.

[@DustinLowmanMusic]

Love that! A lot of these songs really carry the weight of years - that's why I cover so few of them. But we've got a bunch on our set list for the next Cafe Wha? show!

[@oldman670]

Some other thoughts: His best Blues Song, Best Guitar Solo on record (there aren’t many); best Harmonica solo; best sidemen; best producer (Wilson vs Johnston vs Lanois vs Frost); top 10 strangest things he’s done (really? Transfiguration Bob?)

[@DustinLowmanMusic]

😂 That Tempest interview is full of great one-liners - some of which would get me demonetized haha

[@brodyclasen2397]

Where do you find the bootlegs that don’t have a wide release?

[@DustinLowmanMusic]

Check the video description for links!

[@sebbvell3426]

Christmas in the heart is a good album in my opinion

[@junahsutton1602]

what is your source for the bootlegs?

[@DustinLowmanMusic]

Lots of digging through the internet over the years. Check out expectingrain.com if you haven't!

[@ringostarrBestBeatle]

8:50 i think that’s 100% intentional. more than the past 2 albums he’s reflecting on age and death, even if he talks about death on time out of mind, it’s not as “personal” compared to modern times

[@DustinLowmanMusic]

Yes, I think there's truth to that.

[@KaueNuness]

Street Legal é extraordinário! Eu adoro esse álbum, canções como "No Time to Think", "Baby, Stop Crying" e "Where Are You Tonight? (Journey Through Dark Heat)" são especiais. Talvez seja o último frescor do Dylan dos anos 70. Dali pra frente tudo mudaria.

[@arto2533]

Love and Theft is absolutely S-tier. I'd put 'Modern Times' a bit higher in the A-tier as well. I've always felt that in this period Dylan uses lots of pretty pedestrian filler lines and cliches only to "set you up" for when he soon follows them with something incredible. Of course he's always done that, but on these (supposedly) more painstakingly crafted songs and albums they seem to work especially well for me.

[@DustinLowmanMusic]

That's very well-said. It's a trick he's used elsewhere too - I think of "Time is a jet plane, it moves too fast / Ah but what a shame that all we've shared can't last" from "You're A Big Girl Now"

[@dkslayerr]

Heard you mention Charley Patton he's one of my fav Delta Blues players. Probably top 3 1. Robert Johnson 2. Blind Willie Johnson 3. Charley Patton

[@DustinLowmanMusic]

I was listening to Blind Willie McTell the other day and really enjoying him too!

[@dkslayerr]

@@DustinLowmanMusic I never liked Mctell as much to be honest but I still respect what he's made. Also do you like Jack White he's my fav artist

[@DustinLowmanMusic]

@ yeah I’m a fan!

[@ramsesgoddeeris2175]

I also like to cover Po' Boy, really nice song

[@connorswiney66]

Would love to see a John Prine tier list

[@ResidentWiseacre]

That would be awesome.

[@DustinLowmanMusic]

Hell yes!

[@EricBerger-p3x]

Okay okay, I get different opinions and such but putting the Christmas album above Street-Legal is MENTAL.

[@DustinLowmanMusic]

hahaha I've been called worse. I've never connected with Street-Legal - I just can't get past this malicious energy I get from Bob's voice throughout that album.

[@alejoparedes2388]

"Love & Theft" is lowkey his best album ever

[@DustinLowmanMusic]

@@alejoparedes2388 it’s up there for sure

[@mladent1464]

Hey, Dustin, are you a fan of Captain Beefheart? If you are, some fans would get a kick out of a tier list.

[@DustinLowmanMusic]

@@mladent1464 I like him! Would have to listen a lot more to be qualified to do a tier list, but that’d be fun

[@itsagasgasgas]

A Bob bootleg I always liked a lot is the Sheffield show of September 22, 2000…

[@DustinLowmanMusic]

Definitely! Some great shows from 2000

[@kas4243]

To me Blonde on Blonde doesn’t seem like a rehash of Highway 61 - it feels to me like a completely different sounds and aesthetic that he’s reaching for. Great video though!

[@DustinLowmanMusic]

I see that point of view, but I think the departures often feel like less-than-fully-baked approaches - I have a lot of controversial feelings about that album that I'll save lest I alienate you 😂

[@sebbvell3426]

My ranking would be: Modern Times "Love and Theft" Together Through Life Christmas in The Heart

[@Luizmusic119]

I really like the vids man as like the cover videos would love to see some more original works tho, i think you got a good insight but i have to say your time they are changin take is crazy it has objectively some of dylan best song and i know it get a lot of flack for being dylan most "preachy/protesty" but when you get down to it it realy a break up album Disguised as a protest album in the way the tragedies of society reflect dylan's heart break, im glad you moved it from c to to either a or b but really desvere the s teir in his work

[@DustinLowmanMusic]

It was initially in the B tier, now the A tier. I see your point, but I maintain my point of view that the overwhelmingly dour vibe makes it less of an engrossing listen than many of his others.

[@Luizmusic119]

@DustinLowmanMusic respect

[@OrggsOrggs]

Love and theft his funniest album?

[@DustinLowmanMusic]

Very possibly!

[@schatzmatt78]

Wow. 2009. "I didn't realize how young you weeeeeerrrrrreeeeee...."

[@DustinLowmanMusic]

😂 Sooner or later, all of us had to know

[@shortfilmfinn6806]

George Harrison tierlist! It wouldn't take too long!

[@DustinLowmanMusic]

I gather that would put you on Cloud 9 😉

[@Farhaan_Ali]

Tweedle-Dee Dum and Tweedle-Dee Dee!

[@karsaurlong]

you're not including the bootleg series?

[@DustinLowmanMusic]

Next series!

[@elliotgoodine954]

At another one of those Jack-White-Guested shows, he got Dylan to play Meet Me In the Morning for the only time ever. kzbin.info/www/bejne/m4u1i596pZytgac

[@joebeaulieu1511]

I’m older so I disagree with you about modern times. But at least you nailed potential. In 25 years you too will revise it upward

[@axelwilson3771]

I've watched all the videos in this series and think they are quite good. I understand most of the ratings Dustin Lowman makes but I feel he has failed to mention (except when talking about the context of Christmas in the heart) what to me is an integral part of what makes Bob Dylan such a definitive, singular artist. Bob Dylan is funny [kzbin.info/www/bejne/bHvMqa15f7Goqrcsi=ZFbvW_wG98o5CAL_]. He has a sense of humour that is rarely found in music and where in the places this quality is found it has never been sustained for 50+ years. Cuz' Dylan can write beautifully, but so can many. And many can sing sing beautifully and sometimes Dylan can aswell. The difference is, in my opinion, that Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, Bruce Springsteen or who-ever you want to stack against Dylan, never made a joke in their songs that landed. The jokes musicians make are generally hearty. A hearty joke joke demands agreement but not a thought. The obvious example against this is Lou Reed but his career ended before it turned 50, so: My point is that singers and songwriters are usually deep, poetic and such and whatever but when faced with the other side of the mask they are found lacking. I like the work of Bob Dylan. It has made me smile and introspect, consider things I wouldnt have otherwise. I think this can be considerably attributed to his ability to unseeingly never having to lean far to reach either the comedic, the dramatic or the realistic. These are my 2 cents and if you dont agree with mee you can suck my --

[@DustinLowmanMusic]

I completely agree with this and I did make this point in the 60s video! Especially re: The Times They Are A-Changin', where the comedy is all but absent, and it hurts the listening experience.

[@matthewzuckerman6267]

It may be worth listening to Forgetful Heart again entertaining the idea that the forgetful heart is his own -- an artist divorced from the spirit that has sustained him. The studio recording is rather plodding but the live versions seem to support this reading.

[@DustinLowmanMusic]

I have seen it live a few times and it's been very good!

[@sebbvell3426]

You should listen to Days of 49 a little bit more

[@christopherthompson4037]

This list feels incredibly safe. Why not just look up pitchfork or rolling stone reviews… he lacks the courage to place Slow Train on the A tier. Wait wait modern times on the A tier okay okay…

[@DustinLowmanMusic]

There are similarities and differences between my list and other lists!

[@magnetorful]

like the depth you got. but you are a musician, so think you listen to play them. my ranking differ

[@DustinLowmanMusic]

Good point - the way we rank these has a lot to do with our personal relationship with them!

[@johnwheatcroft1188]

Get rid of the background music,not necessary, just talk,it's off putting..thanks

[@DustinLowmanMusic]

I might experiment with a different style of editing in the next video. A few people each video have mentioned this.

[@muhammadrifqi7308]

Suggestion: Elvis Presley tierlist

[@junahsutton1602]

that will be easy, all f tier

[@muhammadrifqi7308]

@junahsutton1602 you're a hater, dude (though i agree with the sentiment)

[@dansavik7137]

You never hear about women liking Dylan's music, it is always men. Strange.

[@DustinLowmanMusic]

@@dansavik7137 this isn’t true. I have a number of women friends in Brooklyn, songwriters and not, who love Bob. I think it’s more that men tend to be louder about the things they’re into - and also, for some reason, to like seeing things ranked.

[@EricBerger-p3x]

The fresh songwriting poetics of Love and Theft is lifting whole phrases almost verbatim from other people's work and stitch them together into incoherent narratives, a patchwork of meaningful sounding phrases that are just 'there', and often don't really fit together. It's his plagiarizing album.

[@OrggsOrggs]

Look at the title of the album mate.

[@DustinLowmanMusic]

There's an argument to be made here, but it's an argument that is totally agnostic to the quality and power of the songs. If they didn't resonate, I wouldn't give it so much credit and careful thought.

[@guthrietheboy2347]

Bro his Zionist album is z tier

[@DustinLowmanMusic]

Which album is that? Infidels? There's precisely one song on that album that can be interpreted as Zionist, and much of the rest of the material is quite good.

[@johnwheatcroft1188]

Get rid of the music..its not necessary

[@lame-o420]

dean blunt better.

[@christopherthompson4037]

You lack courage for putting Christmas in the Heart in the C tier. At least B tier… how about you and your ring light get a life… jk jk

[@DustinLowmanMusic]

What I lack in courage I make up for in lighting 😂