Bob Dylan: Oh Mercy (1989)

As I noted in my Bob Dylan album rankings, I consider Oh Mercy to be Dylan's most underrated album. As a general statement, the 80's were not overly kind to Dylan as he released numerous terrible albums in the decade but Oh Mercy closed it out on a definite high note.

Oh Mercy is an extremely ballad heavy album. After the rocking opener "Political World" and the swampy "Everything is Broken" there are no up-tempo songs to be found. While that lack of balance could possibly be hindrance, in the hands of Dylan and producer Daniel Lanois it isn't. "Ring Them Bells," "Most of the Time" and "What Good am I?" feature some of the most beautiful melodies of Dylan's career. The whole middle of the album is really as simply beautiful as Dylan would or could ever be. "Disease of Conceit" and "Shooting Star" bring the album to a close with a couple more high quality tracks.

I used to find Lanois' atmospheric and sometimes cluttered production to be a distraction that hadn't aged well but I've come around to it. Most of these songs would be fantastic even if it was just Dylan and either a guitar or piano on the tracks but Lanois' production gives them that extra little something special and ties the album together very well.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention three outtakes that would be originally recorded during the Oh Mercy sessions but were left off for various reasons. They would all surface either on subsequent albums or on The Bootleg Series comps but including "Dignity," "Born in Time" and especially the fantastic "Series of Dreams" would have put Oh Mercy into the upper echelon of Dylan's catalog. As it stands Oh Mercy isn't one of the greatest or most important albums of Dylan's career but it is a highly enjoyable and severely underrated one.

Rating: 4.5

Track Listing:

1. "Political World" (3:49)
2. "Where Teardrops Fall" (2:33)
3. "Everything is Broken" (3:15)
4. "Ring Them Bells" (3:01)
5. "Man in the Long Black Coat" (4:35)
6. "Most of the Time" (5:04)
7. "What Good am I?" (4:45)
8. "Disease of Conceit" (3:44)
9. "What Was it You Wanted" (5:03)
10. "Shooting Star" (3:13)