A 2025 Surprise From the Master of Timing: Bob Dylan’s Latest Track “All Seems So Well Timed” Stirs Fans With Unexpected Clarity and Reflection… click the link to read more

Nearly six hours of a tour preceding the release of Modern Times is one for the completionists. The seasoned Bob Dylan fan, the completionist hunting down every second released, officially or not, is in for a treat. Bootleg compilations of tours deemed not interesting enough for live album releases are in the hands of the community. We can rely on them time and again, and for All Seems So Well Timed, it appears the extremes of the Dylan fan base were at work. It would not be at all surprising if his lunches, naps, and thoughts on The Black Parade were also logged. These are the hits performed with a new vocal range, rather than a performance like the Rough and Rowdy Ways tour, where those classics inform the contemporary sound. No, this is a chance for Dylan to raid his archives, to assess the songs he loves and hates.

Those tours are important, though All Seems So Well Timed highlights the general consistency Dylan had landed on. Things Have Changed from Las Vegas is where the compilation gets to grips with the new sound, the controversial organ, and the clarity of Dylan as a vocalist. Maggie’s Farm does little but warm the listener, an essential of any opening song, though it lacks a punchiness, a persuasive form, which features in the songs to follow. She Belongs to Me and Watching the River Flow are two fine examples of how Dylan was bringing new context, a fresh relevancy, to songs of the past. Modern Times songs have no bearing on this tour, not just because the album did not release until August, but because the structure of this tour would not lend itself to promoting new material. This is a rare chance for Dylan fans to hear the songwriter revisiting some of the all-time greats, the unsung heroes of his discography.

He does just that with performances of High Water (For Charley Patton), Cold Iron Bounds, and Love Sick. Contemporary pieces which are now legendary, songs which put Dylan at the forefront of many minds for the first time since the 1970s. There are plenty of those classic tracks from the 1960s and 70s, too. What All Seems So Well Timed succeeds in creating is a balancing act of the big hits like Masters of War and Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright and the somewhat deeper cuts, but still recognisable notes of Boots of Spanish Leather and Girl from the North Country. It all depends on which Dylan album you grew up listening to. A Nashville Skyline track may be obvious to one, outstanding for another. That is what the set offers best of all – the surprise of hearing those classics in quick succession.

Hearing a crowd realise they are listening to Mr. Tambourine Man is a delight. Not because of lyrical or vocal changes, but because the slower tempo, the drift away from solo acoustic performance means it is a harder song to tie down instrumentally. Those are the reasons to return to earlier tours, the bootlegged dates across the years. Dylan has managed to make even his biggest hits feel like rarities. He does this with constant setlist rotation, a tried and tested practice which works in smaller bursts for other artists. For Dylan, though, it is a fundamental of his tour. An interest in almost every song is what can be heard on All Seems So Well Timed, a phenomenal deep dive into what is, by the end of this compilation, a truly underrated tour.