The album that made Dylan a household name - ubiquitous cover versions and all - and proved that "Hammond's folly" might in fact be actual new voice worth hearing.
As opposite to Dylan's debut album, here we have lots of original material that sounds at the same time contemporary and ancient,like some ancient traditional folk songs that he used for inspiration. Music wise, here is this angry young man with basically ugly voice and minimal musical background (of course, it was all intentional, the whole package would not work if "Columbia" surrounded this raw, new voice with a strings and backing choruses as they did on their commercial releases by Johnny Mathis and others) talk-singing about topics that could be explained in hundreds of ways. Although Dylan of course only follows the path of artists who came before him, he somehow twists it in his own new perception and true art here is that his songs appealed to so many listeners around the world who heard a message in them. Everything about this album, from singer's voice to the topics (and even the cover photo) is a break from than current crooner's tradition of "entertainment" and its not possible to underestimate the effect it had to generations of listeners (The Beatles wore the record out, Van Morrison was shocked, poet Allen Ginsberg wept) and its future totemic status.
Personally, I find "Masters of War" the most chilling song here but new manager made sure that other songs were covered by commercial artists and had a huge chart visibility.
Not sure how many kids buy this album nowadays when music industry had turned into completely opposite direction and technological special effects, gimmicks and visual hedonism seemingly completely overshadowed the lyrics, but who knows, the tide of times might turn again.
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