You can go anywhere if you're someone else

Dylan and his music have become so ingrained in American pop culture that it's easy to forget what a weirdo he was, personally and musically. Drawing from a folkie predilection for overstatement, he wrote tons of verses per song, in oblique and impenetrable metaphors, words collapsing upon words, barbed with inside jokes, private accusations, and masked characters. He sang these songs in a nasal voice that became more and more of a defense mechanism as the years went on, suggesting a self-conscious lapse into self-parody.

Culling songs from his legendary albums as well as from obscure bootlegs, I'm Not There covers nearly every fabled aspect of his career: his earnest folkie beginnings, his electric post-Newport days, his conversion to Christianity, his 80s nadir, and finally, his current status as an eccentric éminence grise. In taking such a broad sampling of songs, I'm Not There persuasively argues that each phase is as important and potentially rewarding as any other.

STEPHEN M. DEUSNER, en Pitchfork