"Love and Theft" (2001)

"Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum" Just to make sure there weren't any questions about the last one, there's this one (and then the one after that). Bob Dylan may be 60+ (and currently looking down the barrel of 70) but he's enjoying arguably the peak of an illustrious and storied career. How is he doing this? The brilliant assembly of side players doesn't hurt. Ditto the immaculate production. But, fact is, the loopy, loony sensibility that's always been at the heart of the best Dylan is simply at the heart of this too. It's often funny. It's always deeply rooted in American experience, down deep in the subconscious where you can only feel it, and feel how giant and imposing it is indeed. Sometimes it's so beautiful it makes you want to cry – not for the sentiments, which again like the best of his stuff were mostly cauterized away before anything was ever recorded, but just for being so damn well done. P.S. Don't make too much of the release date, September 11, 2001. Tuesdays and Septembers are known quantities in the industry in the first place. And then the signifying album in that category anyway is more likely Slayer's God Hates Us All. Don't you think? I mean, what's love got to do with it, right? Nothing and we all know that. In this album, by contrast, it's at least half of everything, hence the title.