Rough and Rowdy Ways

Bob Dylan

Rough and Rowdy Ways

The 39th album and first release of original songs since Tempest in 2012 from the legendary singer-songwriter

ADM rating[?]

8.9

Label
BMGS4
UK Release date
19/06/2020
US Release date
19/06/2020
  1. 10.0 |   The Guardian

    Full of bleak and brooding rhythm and blues, Rough and Rowdy Ways reveals Dylan at his lyrical best
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  2. 10.0 |   The Arts Desk

    Bob returns with an unadulturated, stone-cold masterpiece
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  3. 10.0 |   Mojo

    More evidence of the vast scope of his artistic vision. What’s extraordinary is how it continues to expand, containing multitudes no one else thought of. Print edition only

  4. 10.0 |   NME

    Arguably his grandest poetic statement yet
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  5. 10.0 |   The Irish Times

    The master is back on song
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  6. 10.0 |   Evening Standard

    The 70 minutes of Rough and Rowdy Ways, knotted with literary allusions, historical references, pure poetry and the occasional joke, are more than Nobel-worthy, an edifice of lyrical virtuousity that could keep Dylanologists going for years
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  7. 10.0 |   Exclaim

    Rough and Rowdy Ways is the work of a man in love with language and philosophy, and, at 79, he continues to take the pulse of the zeitgeist with unerring precision. He ain't no false prophet, he's an artist, he don't look back
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  8. 10.0 |   Spectrum Culture

    The best of Dylan’s records share roots with the whole wide, wild corpus of American music
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  9. 10.0 |   The FT

    The veteran musician roams to all points of the compass, fusing religion, myth and reality
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  10. 10.0 |   The Line Of Best Fit

    In the wildest year that many of us have ever lived through, it’s no surprise that Bob Dylan is our guide, our constant, our prophet – the truest chronicler of human experience ever born and the most frustrating author ever to put pen to paper
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  11. 10.0 |   Sungenre

    At 79 years old, Dylan manages to craft his songs as strong as he ever has, which makes one wonder, not just about how his historical missteps came to be, but why every artist can’t be this enduring
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  12. 9.0 |   musicOMH

    If Rough And Rowdy Ways ends up being his last major work, it’s a hell of a way to bow out
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  13. 9.0 |   No Ripcord

    Rough and Rowdy Ways is the ambitious opus we didn't think he'd return to after close to a decade of elegantly phoning it in
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  14. 9.0 |   Clash

    A stark work ‘Rough & Rowdy Ways’ arrives with remarkable timing. A record shadowed by death and fuelled by rage
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  15. 9.0 |   Slant Magazine

    The album encompasses the infinite potential for grace and disaster during the most turbulent of ages
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  16. 9.0 |   Pitchfork

    Six decades into his career, Bob Dylan delivers a gorgeous and meticulous record. It is the rare Dylan album that asks to be understood and comes down to meet its audience
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  17. 9.0 |   Rolling Stone

    While the world keeps trying to celebrate him as an institution, pin him down, cast him in the Nobel Prize canon, embalm his past, this drifter always keeps on making his next escape. On Rough and Rowdy Ways, Dylan is exploring terrain nobody else has reached before — yet he just keeps pushing on into the future
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  18. 8.0 |   The Independent

    A soothing fit for the lockdown mood in which time and meaning feel strangely stretched and untethered
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  19. 8.0 |   All Music

    Rough and Rowdy Ways is akin to transformational albums such as Love and Theft, and Slow Train Coming. It's a portrait of the artist in winter who remains vital and enigmatic. At nearly 80, Dylan's pen and guitar case still hold plenty of magic
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  20. 8.0 |   The Observer

    Dylan’s erudite new album contains multitudes. Is it a last boomer hurrah?
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  21. 8.0 |   Albumism

    This time when he morphs the past, he shimmies it into our present in a way only he knows how. The mystery of understanding Dylan is unspoken this time. He knows it and you know it too
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  22. 8.0 |   PopMatters

    Bob Dylan returns as prophet, historian, and joker on his latest album, Rough and Rowdy Ways, an unending puzzle with rich content
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  23. 6.7 |   Consequence Of Sound

    Dylan's powers persist but feel slightly squandered on this forgettable return to new material
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  24. 5.0 |   Gigwise

    Pretty but redundant songwriting from an artist who no longer has his finger on the pulse
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