A guide to Bob Dylan's best music

Rounding up the best Bob Dylan albums is no small task. Now aged 83, the musician has never slacked on putting out records. The result: 40 studio albums, 21 live albums, 44 compilation albums and dozens of soundtracks, EPs and rarities sets. No Frank Ocean-type complaints about a lack of material here. The bigger problem is working out which ones to listen to – especially if you’ve caught the hype of Dylan’s Timothée Chalamet-powered biopic, A Complete Unknown, and want to dig into the discography for the first time.

Unsurprisingly, because it’s so big, Dylan’s body of work sprawls into multiple genres, including folk, rock, country and even gospel. (Don’t listen to the gospel albums.) He’s put out more live albums and outtakes albums than many artists have studio albums. But among all that, there are a few inarguable standouts. So here are (some of) the best Bob Dylan albums, arranged in chronological order, to give you a sense of how this giant of popular music has evolved over the years.

The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan (1963)

Dylan’s second album was the one that first got him proper attention, and it’s not hard to see why. He’s still very much in folk mode, but he’s mostly transitioned to writing his own songs rather than doing classics. And boy, his songs are sublime: this is the record that contains “Blowin’ in the Wind”, “Masters of War”, “A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall” and “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right”. It’s a testament to his innate talent that, despite all everything that followed, an album he wrote at 21 still ranks among his best.

Bringing It All Back Home (1965)