Rough and Rowdy Ways is that it gives us so many of the Bob Dylans that we've known and loved over the years: the Dylan who free associates long strings of poetic phrasings the Dylan who can write a really pure and direct love song or the Dylan who likes to play the mythical adventurer or even the crooner who's covered Sinatra. On Bob Dylan creating an album that carves space out of the modern landscape of hip-hop and pop musicĭylan has managed to make an album that seems to reference his whole career while feeling like something new.
