The thirty-sixth album: #36 Bob Dylan - The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan
While rock is starting, Bob Dylan comes in with his folk music. The album leads off with the famous Blowin' In The Wind, one of his most famous songs. As with all songs on the album, Dylan wrote it himself, showing the power of his writing, which feels miles ahead of contemporaries and creates a potent (in this case pacifist) message. The second song shows this too - while a love song of sorts (or ealing with the loss of it), it is deeper than, say, the Beatles songs from last week dealing with similar subjects. Masters of Wars then changes that again, sounding more aggressive (relatively speaking) and feeling more pointed.
The album continues in this vein, folk music that feels more clever than anything else. It might not be at the top musically, but it certainly is when it comes to the lyrics. The former does drag it down a bit - it does little to distinguish later songs on the album from each other, which makes it all blur together and, for me, blurs the message a bit. I certainly prefer the earlier parts of the album to, say, trying to distinguish Bob Dylan's Dream from the others. He really is at his best, for me, when he's trying to sound different, more than just folk songs with an idealistic bent, but when it pulls in stronger personal touches - whether it's anger, sarcasm or using other humour in his songs.