Bob Dylan Modern Times
Bob Dylan's Modern Times opens like a weathered hymn and closes like a dirge, a late-career collection that leans on American roots and worn wisdom to striking effect. Across professional reviews, critics point to the album's blend of blues, folk, rockabilly and country as the backdrop for Dylan's gravelly delivery and
Nettie Moore is best for its dark, spellbinding inhabitation of traditional ballad form.
Shared criticism is still limited across the current review sample.
Best for listeners looking for mortality and brooding, starting with Nettie Moore and When the Deal Goes Down.
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Full consensus notes
Bob Dylan's Modern Times opens like a weathered hymn and closes like a dirge, a late-career collection that leans on American roots and worn wisdom to striking effect. Across professional reviews, critics point to the album's blend of blues, folk, rockabilly and country as the backdrop for Dylan's gravelly delivery and sly wordplay, and they single out songs such as “Nettie Moore”, “When the Deal Goes Down”, “Ain't Talkin'” and “Thunder On the Mountain” as the record's most memorable moments. With a 85.57/100 consensus score from 23 reviews, the critical consensus treats Modern Times as a mature, often brooding triumph rather than a radical reinvention.
Reviewers consistently praise the album's thematic mixture of melancholy, mortality and sly satire, noting how divine reckoning and nostalgia thread through both the ballads and the livelier numbers. Critics praised the intimate, metaphysical turn of “When the Deal Goes Down” and the dark, spellbinding sweep of “Nettie Moore”, while “Ain't Talkin'” is frequently cited as a chilling, moral closer and “Thunder On the Mountain” as a dramatic, bluesy opener. Across these professional reviews, commentators highlight Dylan's lyrical dexterity and the record's rootedness in folk and blues traditions, even as some note a measured sameness to the vintage style that occasionally favors mood over risk.
Taken together, the reviews suggest Modern Times deserves attention for its storytelling, tonal control and late-career continuity; it answers the question of whether the album is good with an emphatic yes from most critics, especially for those seeking the best songs on Modern Times in tracks like “Nettie Moore” and “Ain't Talkin'”. Below, detailed reviews unpack why reviewers call the record a compelling addition to Dylan's catalog.
Critics' Top Tracks
The standout songs that made critics take notice
Nettie Moore
6 mentions
"On 'Nettie Moore', Dylan does that alchemical thing, making a traditional folk ballad even more darkly spellbinding."— The Guardian
When the Deal Goes Down
6 mentions
"Tomorrow keeps turning around/We live and we die, we know not why/But I’ll be with you when the deal goes down."— Rolling Stone
Ain't Talkin'
5 mentions
"the final track, "Ain't Talkin'," where a lonesome fiddle, piano, and hand percussion spill out a gypsy ballad"— AllMusic
Tomorrow keeps turning around/We live and we die, we know not why/But I’ll be with you when the deal goes down.
Track Ratings
How critics rated each track, relative to this album (0-100). Only tracks that made critics feel something are rated.
Thunder On the Mountain
Spirit On the Water
Rollin' and Tumblin'
When the Deal Goes Down
Someday Baby
Workingman's Blues #2
Beyond the Horizon
Nettie Moore
The Levee's Gonna Break
Ain't Talkin'
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What Critics Are Saying
Deep insights from 23 critics who reviewed this album
Critic's Take
Bob Dylan sounds like a weathered traveler on Modern Times, his croak and rasp making the best tracks feel lived-in and inevitable. He praises “When the Deal Goes Down” as a divine, metaphysical love song and names “Nettie Moore” darkly spellbinding, which positions these as among the best songs on Modern Times. The critic's tone is elegiac and comparative, rooting Dylan in tradition while noting the persistent regret that binds the album together.
Key Points
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Nettie Moore is best for its dark, spellbinding inhabitation of traditional ballad form.
Themes
Critic's Take
Bob Dylan's Modern Times is a record where the best tracks - notably “Thunder On the Mountain” and “Ain't Talkin'” - condense prophecy and intimacy into compact, authoritative songs. The reviewer lingers on “Thunder On the Mountain” as a piling-up of devotion, lust and the second coming, and frames “Ain't Talkin'” as a hard-boiled moral close that sends the listener toward Eden. The album's strongest songs trade in American roots and biblical weight, making those tracks the best songs on Modern Times because they marry plain-spoken language with mythic scope. Overall, these best tracks show Dylan's command and accumulated knowledge, the very reason many listeners seek the best tracks on Modern Times.
Key Points
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“Thunder On the Mountain” is the best song because it concentrates devotion, lust and apocalyptic prophecy into a commanding opener.
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The album’s core strengths are its rooted American musical vocabulary, plain-spoken language, and mythic, prophetic themes.
Themes
Critic's Take
Bob Dylan sounds at ease on Modern Times, a relaxed but great album that blends blues, folk and balladry in his vintage voice. The review singles out “Thunder On the Mountain” as a dramatic, bluesy opener and highlights “Workingman's Blues #2” and “The Levee's Gonna Break” for their faint political touch, so listeners asking about the best tracks on Modern Times should start there. Keir Hind's tone is approving and wry, noting clever wordplay and repeated listens rewarding the patient fan.
Key Points
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The best song opener is “Thunder On the Mountain” because it provides a dramatic, bluesy launch that epitomizes the album's mix.
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The album's core strengths are vintage Dylan wordplay, a blend of blues and folk, and subtle political touches.
Themes
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Critic's Take
Bob Dylan sounds both raucous and tender on Modern Times, and the best tracks - “Thunder On the Mountain”, “When the Deal Goes Down”, “Ain't Talkin'” - showcase that range. Jurek revels in the barn-burning electricity of “Thunder On the Mountain” while pointing to the parlor-sweetness of “When the Deal Goes Down” as evidence of Dylan's old-time swing. He lets “Ain't Talkin'” close the record with a lonesome, gypsy-ballad sense of foreboding that feels like the album's emotional center. The review emphasizes how these best songs trade between bawdy joy and bottomless sadness, making them the standout tracks on Modern Times by virtue of performance and historical depth.
Key Points
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The best song is "Thunder On the Mountain" because its barn-burning energy and vivid instrumentation make it the album's showpiece.
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The album's core strengths are its command of American folk-blues forms and the emotional ambivalence that balances bawdy joy with bottomless sadness.
Themes
Critic's Take
Bob Dylan delivers on Modern Times with a weary wit and aural gumption that makes the best tracks feel lived-in and vital. The reviewer's tone fixes on the loveliest moments, especially “Spirit On the Water” and “When the Deal Goes Down”, which render the record's apocalypse palatable through warm production and aching melody. There is a consistent mournful charisma here - songs fold blues, jazz, and rockabilly into compact stories of unrequited love and hard-luck lives. In short, the best songs on Modern Times are intimate, well-worn gems that let Dylan's gravelly tenor and his touring band shine together.
Key Points
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The best song is intimate and lovely because it renders the record's apocalypse palatable with warm production.
Themes
Co
Critic's Take
Bob Dylan keeps cooking familiar pleasures on Modern Times, and the best songs here - notably “Rollin' and Tumblin'” and “Nettie Moore” - show why that matters. Petrusich's eye for sly detail surfaces in how “Rollin' and Tumblin'” is punched up with "peppery guitar" while “Nettie Moore” staggers as a spare, airy ballad, proof that Dylan's decaying pipes can still coax sweetness. The record rewards listeners who like their Dylan weathered and wry, and the best tracks on Modern Times make a persuasive case for his late-career charm.
Key Points
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Nettie Moore is the emotional center, a staggering, spare ballad showcasing Dylan's vocal fragility.
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The album's core strengths are its expert band performances and the charming, weathered late-career songwriting.
Themes
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Critic's Take
Bob Dylan sounds both reflective and boisterous on Modern Times, and the best tracks are those that marry his verbal dexterity with familiar forms. The review elevates “When the Deal Goes Down”, “Workingman's Blues #2” and “Nettie Moore” as signature Dylan ballads, while also praising “Thunder On the Mountain” and “Someday Baby” for their pre-rock simplicity. The writer's voice is admiring and slightly astonished - at 65 Dylan still delivers cutting social criticism, ribald humour and textbook rock'n'roll philosophising across the album. This makes the question of the best songs on Modern Times tilt toward the ballad/folk tracks that feel like classic Dylan, even as the livelier numbers hold their own.
Key Points
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The best song(s) are the ballad/folk tracks like "When the Deal Goes Down" because they showcase Dylan's signature lyrical dexterity.
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The album's core strengths are its blend of reflective and boisterous moods and Dylan's enduring verbal skills.
Themes
Critic's Take
Bob Dylan sounds rueful and sardonic across Modern Times, and the best tracks - notably "Spirit On the Water" and "Nettie Moore" - show him still able to beguile with a descending riff and an insistent pulse. The record prefers muted rockabilly shuffles and polite, country-inflected pop to bombast, so the best songs on Modern Times are those small, unsettling croons rather than grand statements. There are also longer, elegiac pieces like "Workingman's Blues #2" and the chilling closer "Ain't Talkin'" that underline the album's intimations of doom. Overall, the album charms more than it astonishes, its highlights proving Dylan's renaissance is musical rather than miraculous.
Key Points
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The best song moments are intimate, riff-driven pieces like "Spirit On the Water" that beguile rather than astonish.
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The album's core strengths are its rootsy arrangements, elegiac mood, and Dylan's distinctive croak that turns mild-mannered tunes unsettling.
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