Bob Dylan – Blood on the Tracks (1975)

I only just went to a record shop to buy this album on vinyl right before writing this post. I felt like this is an album I can't miss in this blog and I've been thinking of buying it for a long time anyway. Whenever Dylan has released a good album after this one, everyone refers to them as "his best work since Blood on the Tracks. And fair enough, Blood on the Tracks is probably the last of the amazing masterpieces he ever released. In my books it goes right up there with Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde as the best ever Dylan album. This album sounds more personal than many other Dylan albums. There are topics of love and heartbreak. Some people, such as Dylan's son, have claimed that this album is about Dylan's relationship with his first wife, with whom Dylan was just separating at the time, but Dylan has always denied that this is the case. Nevertheless, these topics sound personal and thus it makes this album one of the most identifiable ones Dylan has ever made.



Dylan first recorded this album in New York, but right before the label was supposed to release the album, Dylan decided that he needs to rerecord some of these songs and on the final album half of the songs were recorded in Minneapolis. The sounds are quite simple on this album, there's not much else than an acoustic guitar, bass and simple drums on this album. Dylan's vocals are more trained on this album than they were on the early albums, but he still has his signature nasal voice.

The album starts with the great hit song Tangled Up in Blue. This is one of the most well-known Dylan songs from the 70's. The songwriting is very similar to some of his early songs, but the sounds are more modern. Simple Twist of Fate has great bass lines and excellent guitar chords that make a seemingly simple song sound very interesting. one of my favourite songs on this album is You're a Big Girl Now, which is also one of the most beautiful ballads Dylan has ever composed. Idiot Wind has slightly bigger sounds than the other songs so far. There's some Hammond organ and the drums are played harder than earlier on. You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go is another bow to the earlier Dylan albums. The song itself could've just as easily been found on Freewheelin' when it comes to composition. Meet Me in the Morning is a bluesy country song where Dylan has to use his voice a bit more than usually. Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts is a great country song with amazing fast tempo groove. If You See Her, Say Hello is a great song full of emotion. This is Dylan at his most personal state. The last song on the album, Buckets of Rain sounds like the traditional Americana folk songs in the late 1950's.

More recently, Dylan has been criticised that his voice doesn't really work anymore. I guess there's some truth in that. However, at the time of this album, Dylan's live performance was still quite captivating. Here's a live performance of Tangled Up in Blue. There's some great raspiness in his voice.

This album has been selected over and over again to best ever albums lists and I can totally see why. It shows the amazing songwriting talent Dylan has perfectly. On this album Dylan returned to Columbia records and in a way he returned to his roots by making mainly acoustic songs, but this time the songs were more personal than political. Blood on the Tracks is definitely an album everyone should own and I'm glad that now I finally do.

Listen to the album on Spotify.