Bob Dylan's Modern Times, a new Masterpiece?

I'm not comfortable with the term "Masterpiece". Absolutes are used so often they have lossed their meaning.
I love the album.

-Wendell

Wendell, I totally agree with you. The term "hero" is most often overused. Everbodies a hero now days. I listen to Mordern Times on a good Hi-Fi and the album just sounds right to me. Every aspect. Would you be more comfortable if I said the album is a "classic"? Classic means that over time it maintaned it's impact. I think this music will hold up over the years to come.

I also really like the album having heard it a couple dozen times now but prefer both Time Out of Mind and Love and Theft. It is not a masterpiece. It is not a great album.
YMMV

Wendell,

Just compare Modern Times to Bob Dylan's "Oh Mercy", for example, take the track "Man in the Long Black Cold" and hopefully it will become clear what I mean about compression. I find Dylan's voice is uniformly loud clear and monotonous on Modern Times...sounds like compression but it might be bad miking....of course it may likely be an intentional "effect" rather than a mistake and some people may prefer it....to me it lacks dynamics of real music.

(There are often two points of view; Daniel Lanois messed up U2 sound IMHO but he was also praised for the sound "style" by many. So we may disagree simply due to preferences)

Shadorne,
If I'm not mistaken you're a digital only guy so the assumption here is your source is a cd. I've not heard the digital release so I cannot speak to its' sonics. However, like Narrod I have the vinyl. In my system it does not display any of the characteristics you describe. I'd like to hear the digital release for comparison's sake.