Hello, my name is Ben Burrell and welcome back to Bob Dylan album by album, a podcast that takes an in-depth look at each Bob Dylan studio recording record by record.

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This is episode three, and it's all about a confident, dark record

that wasn't without controversy.

This is Modern Times. I rolled in a tumble, I cried the whole night long.

I rolled and I tumble, and cries a whole night long.

Oh good this morning, I must have bit my money long.

Coming out in August 2006, modern times found Bob in the middle of a very successful period.

The preceding album's Love and Theft in 2001 and Time Out of Mind in 97 had both received

critical acclaim and impressive sales, and that would only be continued here, but even more

so.

In fact, this LP would go on to shift four million copies worldwide, as well as being his first album to hit number

one on the Billboard 200 since Desire, and arguably his best work since that period too, although

from a personal standpoint, I always point out episode 1's album, Oh Mercy, as a high point

between the two. This record would finish yet another Dylan trilogy. We had that classic trio of 60s albums,

then another triplicate in the 70s, starting with Blood on the Tracks, The Christian Period,

and more recently those three albums of Standards covers. Dylan likes a trio, and despite his

thoughts to the contrary, these three records finishing with modern times feel like they're

related. Just like on time out of mind and to a lesser extent its follow-up,

this album is delivered by a man coming to terms with his mortality and his place in the modern world.

The lyrics appear to reference past happenings and a desire to reproduce old times.

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