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Modern Times Image
Metascore
89

Universal acclaim - based on 29 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
8.5

Universal acclaim- based on 289 Ratings

  • Summary: Dylan's first studio release since his 2001 hit 'Love And Theft' is his 44th album overall.

Top Track

Thunder On The Mountain
Thunder on the mountain, and there's fires on the moon A ruckus in the alley and the sun will be here soon Today's the day, gonna grab my trombone... See the rest of the song lyrics
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 28 out of 29
  2. Negative: 0 out of 29
  1. Now, more than at any time since his first few folk albums, he sounds like a traditionalist. He's walking down that same road that Sonny and Cisco and Leadbelly walked down.
  2. Perversion packed with allusions -- forgotten titles, purloined and paraphrased sources, pilfered public records and archives. This is what steeps the songs in American history instead of planting them in psycho wards, clinics, and retirement homes.
  3. Uncut
    100
    Love And Theft was quite unlike any other pop album--apart, that is, from Modern Times, its direct and audacious sequel. [Sep 2006, p.72]
  4. The biggest disappointment here is that Modern Times is probably Dylan's least-surprising release in decades-- it's the logical continuation of its predecessor, created with the same band he's been touring with for years, fed from familiar influences, and sprinkled with all the droll, anachronistic bits now long-expected.
  5. If Time Out of Mind is the weathered, death-obsessed uncle who drinks too much and broods over things unchangeable and distant, and Love and Theft is the rakish cad gleefully dancing on the edge of the apocalypse, then Times is Theft’s clean-shaven, less-interesting brother, with a bit of schooling under his belt and a professional spit-and-polish finish.
  6. Some of the songs are two minutes too long and the album is sometimes so breezy it nearly dissolves, but Dylan’s lyrics are in top form and his band is impeccable.
  7. Whereas Chaplin's sharply drawn social comment is rightly considered a modern classic, Dylan's Modern Times -- sung in a strangely affected croak you'd expect to hear from Leon Redbone's grandfather -- comes off like a feeble anachronism in which our man cynically attempts to pass off public-domain blues and folk tunes as his own by changing a few words.

See all 29 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Negative: 17 out of 162
  1. Nov 10, 2015
    10
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. HINARIOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO melhor album do rei, pisa mais Expand
  2. BobT
    Sep 4, 2006
    10
    This a brilliant album and it exemplifies why Dylan is in a class by himself.
  3. KentE
    Oct 5, 2006
    10
    Let me start first by addressing TBone. Bob Dylan grew up in Hibbing,Minnesota, or the "Iron Range" for those of us who know the area. Very Let me start first by addressing TBone. Bob Dylan grew up in Hibbing,Minnesota, or the "Iron Range" for those of us who know the area. Very working class area, and he himself worked in the mines up there. So yes "Workingman Blues 2" I would assume comes straight from the heart. And it could be him singing about his towns experiences and not his. Spike Lee grew up rich as hell in suburban Los Angeles and makes movies about the "ghetto" something he knows nothing about, but is that ok, or how about P. Diddy or whatever his name is now I cant keep up, grew up in rich suburban New York and sings about gangster life, even if Dylan isnt singing about his own experiences, which he is, most singers dont. The album is great, it mixes fast up beat songs with slower songs. Lots of musicians today modeled themselves after Dylan. "Workingmans Blues 2" is one of the best tracks, "Aint Talkin" is a highlight as well as "leeves gonna break". Its to bad in todays world we have no good protest singers, Green Day is a joke and so are the Dixie Chicks and even Pearl Jam who at least made an effort to make a decent protest album. I was a little dissapointed by the albums lack of political uproar or backlash at the Bush Administration as Dylan is the master of that, but all in all a great album from a great individual who I can only hope keeps making albums until he dies. Expand
  4. MattD.
    Aug 28, 2006
    9
    Great album! Many times, he shows his folk roots again. The thing preventing a 10 is Dylan's voice, which is too worn out to sustain the Great album! Many times, he shows his folk roots again. The thing preventing a 10 is Dylan's voice, which is too worn out to sustain the length of a couple of these songs. Expand
  5. Jan 29, 2014
    9
    An accessible record with master class song-writing, Dylan has never failed at writing a great song. His vocals are painfully gruff, andAn accessible record with master class song-writing, Dylan has never failed at writing a great song. His vocals are painfully gruff, and commands your attention with each track. It's a patient listen, took me a few times to really feel it, and delve my way through each track.

    All In All, Modern Times is a great record, and another one of Dylan's masterpieces. A-
    Expand
  6. AKish
    Aug 28, 2006
    8
    let's be realistic folks.
  7. jackL
    Sep 7, 2006
    0
    im bringing down the ratings

See all 162 User Reviews

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