Hey, I'm Brian Hyatt, and this is Rolling Stone Music Now.

I have with me John Dole and Angie Martosio and Simon Vosick Levenson,

and we're going to talk about the adventures of Bob Dylan in the 21st century.

We did a list recently going through the best songs Bob recorded this century,

pegged to the release of his new album Ruffin Rowdyways, which is pretty great in itself.

And the list does include some songs from that album as well.

Before we start going through the list, let's talk more broadly about Bob in the 21st century,

because I think some people who maybe haven't paid attention

might assume there's something inherently ridiculous about a list like this for someone who is 58

when the century turned. Wasn't all his best work in the 60s and 70s you might ask?

Actually, no, this is an artist who had an amazing 21st century.

And in fact, the 21st century has been more fruitful for him than the 80s and 90s, especially the 80s.

But John, how do you see Dylan's work the past 20 years?

How would you place it in his canon?

I think what you just said is true if you look at the 80s and most of the 90s.

It seemed like a lot of people were kind of ready to write him off a little bit almost,

like he was making records that some people often found kind of observed and changing a lot in ways that people didn't really understand or like.

You know he came back with time out of mind in 1997 and that was kind of a suggestion of the possibility of kind of a new spark but it was a lot of an album that had a lot to do with

sort of intimations of his mortality and things like that.

And it took a little lot to get the next one, but I think when love and theft came out, it was

such a mind-blowing moment and the moment

sense of rejuvenation and the songs on this list

...