Another Self Portrait 1969-1971: The Bootleg Series, Vol. 10

Almost every song is worthy of inclusion.

Despite the vintage, or maybe because it's all been hidden for so long, everything here feels like new music, busy being born and put to tape with crisp impatience.

Combined with illuminating outtakes and demos from less-troubled follow-up New Morning, they make Another Self Portrait a far more rewarding listen than its predecessor.

It sounds quite good, another weird and sloppy record from a guy who released a lot of them. And hearing it again with all the fantastic music that surrounded it, music that further cements Dylan’s Bootleg Series as one of the most important archival projects in modern pop history, it remains a beguiling artifact.

This album opens up the treasure chest and allows you to marvel. His disposable notions turn out to be consistently worthy of such regard.

Confronted by performances like this, you just have to lay down your critical apparatus and surrender to the spell. [Oct 2013, p.100]

For fans, this is more than a curiosity, it's an indispensable addition to the catalog.

Arriving toward the end of summer, Another Self Portrait feels perfectly suited for the type of reflection that accompanies autumn.

These recordings may not have the cultural significance of his 60s classics, but he is on terrific form.

Bob Dylan may have gone to drastic lengths with his music to achieve the simple pleasures he sought. Those willing to accept simple pleasures in return will find plenty to like on Another Self Portrait. It’s a collection that shows that Dylan may not have been painting masterpieces in 1970, but he was still delivering colorful miniatures.

This is another excellent addition to the Bootleg Series connection, one that reflects the period it represents while also complicating it.

Another Self Portrait is highlighted by songs we’ve heard before but present here in different versions.

A dozen familiar tracks, minus their overdubs. [Oct 2013, p.116]

Either titled as a lark, or a worrying admission that, as the 70s dawned, Dylan had run out of ideas and was content to waste everyone’s time with tepid cover recordings.... If anything, it further muddies the waters.

While the Bootleg Series cupboard appears as well-stocked as ever, the value of outtakes from a notoriously weak album (Self Portrait) is debatable, though there are gems among the oddments.