1. Things Have Changed – Finally, an answer to "The Times They Are A Changin'" and change they did but not as Dylan might have predicted. "I used to care but…" A great blues riff with a tired, sad second lookk at where we're going "people are crazy and times are strange…". A lost masterpiece.
2. Summer Days – He use to play this loose jive live on stage all the time, and with his modem stalling it is so specific to a time.. a time he doesn't sound like.
3. Mississippi – Off easily his best album this century, Dylan's inadvertent ode to 9-11.
4. Spirit On The Water – May – Autumn romance, all emotion closeness and sweetheart love. Reminds me of a girl, actually.
5. Must Be Santa – Sure I ragged on the album but this polka is just the most fun and I think maybe I overreacted to the album!
6. I Feel A Change Coming On – Whenever Dylan uses "change" in a song, the world feels fully loaded. This isn't a companion but the sense of aging from change to change to change is overwhelming. Listen out for the accordion.
7. Mutineer – I mentioned the late great Warren Zevon sang the best Dylan cover ever, "Knocking On Heaven's Door", here Dylan returns the favor with an enormously beautiful song. He played it live quite a bit in 2004.
8. Moonlight – Love And Theft is one of my fave Dylan albums. Now, we are talking FAVES! I am not claiming that Love And Theft is BETTER than Blonde On Blonde but I am claiming I can't listen to the latter any longer. The seasons are turning, Dylan notes and we are all getting older, you know.
9. Dreamin' Of You – Straight up blues and a beauty. Circa Time Out Of Mind but only released a coupla years ago.
10. Floater – And finally, Dylan lets his guard down:a self portrait a warning, a passing of the time. "Sometimes things come alive or they go flat".