Bob Dylan's Modern Times, a new Masterpiece?

It seems our definition of masterpiece as it applies to Dylan's catalogs follows no set path. Ben considers Oh Mercy to be "masterpiece" material and Rich sees New Morning as just a "good recording". While I enjoyed Time out of Mind It did not strike me as a user friendly album the way Modern Times does. As for Blood on the Tracks. We all agree it's a classic but not every track is up to the same standards as Tangled up in Blue or Idiot Wind. By the way, I rate New Morning as one of Dylan's best and most personal albums. But thats just me.

Martykl-Love And Theft has very similar music to Modern Times on it.

Dreadhead- I said OM was something of a masterpiece-it was certainly his best album for a long time and it was a reference to Lanois fantastic production job on it.

His Masterpieces per se for me are....
BOTT
BIABH
H61RV
BOB
BS V1-3
BS LIVE66

Just behind those are a series of really good records including Desire ,L&T, Oh Mercy and a few others.

New Morning I think is a fine record but not up with his best.

Ben,

Love & Theft is certainly barking up the same tree as Modern Times, but for me, it doesn't work remotely as well as the new record does. OTOH, I might need to go back and give it one more listen as it's been a while.

Marty

Ben, you don't think John Wesley Harding is a masterpiece?

I really don't think it's fair to include any live albums in a list of Masterpieces. Though I do enjoy all of the Bootleg series of live shows plus Buddakan and Hard Rain etc, they do not have the mindset or the thought process that goes into a new studio album. That's not to say a live album can not qualify as a Masterpiece, Live at the Fillmore, Allman Bros and Live at Leeds, the Who come to mind. But we are discussing Dylan here and each new studio album gives us a wealth of unexplored landscape to survey. I think Another Side of Bob Dylan, Blonde on Blonde, John Wesley Harding, New Morning, Blood on the Tracks qualify.