(***) September 11, 2001. 31st Studio Album
By the time of his 30th studio release, Dylan doesn’t make any uneven albums anymore, which is both good and bad. Unlike earlier in his career, he is only releasing new material every 4-5 years at this point, and generally the best stuff is used. Love and Theft is a very pleasant-sounding album, with an upbeat tempo and simple production, instead of the sound experiments on previous releases. With his touring band behind him, Dylan sticks to his tried and true, boogie-woogie, rock and blues sound, along with a few Sinatra-inspired, lounge-lizard vocal presentations. This style creates a very enjoyable listen, but it is not cutting edge, or jagged, or rough, like some albums. You don’t get as many of the highs, but none of the crazy lows either (some of which are often pretty cool). Lyrically the album is strong, with some of the highlights “High Water (for Charlie Patton),” a nod to some of his blues heroes, also covered with success by Sheryl Crow and the Dixie Chicks; and the rocking “Honest With Me,” but all the songs are consistently high-quality. Dylan won a Grammy for the album, it was critically well-received, and it also sold well, despite being released on the same day as the 9/11 terrorist attacks.