Time Out Of Mind by Bob Dylan released on Columbia Records in 1997, value £35-£40

YOU can never write off Bob Dylan, he is a devil for hopping out of the hearse on the way to the cemetery, writes MICHAEL BROOKS. This is Dylan's 30th studio album, which was the first recording of new material in seven years. Time Out Of Mind is a dark and sombre album with Dylan reflecting over lost love and hints of death. At the time of release it was considered his best work for years, and it eventually won three Grammy awards, one for Best Album of the Year.

Is it a miserable album? It's not. It's basically about dealing with life with all its highs and lows knowing how it will all end. Dylan himself said, "My songs are just me talking to myself, maybe that's an egotistical thing to say, but that's what it is, when you have lost everything, you can lose a little more."

These songs, with their theme of mortality and solitude, were recorded before his close encounter with death. He had been admitted to hospital with pericarditis and it did look like he wasn't going to pull through. As Dylan himself joked, for a time it seemed he was about to meet Elvis. The songs Tryin' To Get To Heaven and Not Dark Yet have a special relevance, the latter is not only the album's centre point and one of the finest he ever wrote, it is often described as the greatest song about growing old. For those of us who are entering that door, it brings up things we didn't know how we were capable of feeling.

One outstanding example of Dylan's continuing ability to write a love song was Make You Feel My Love, covered by Adele who had a huge hit with it and since recorded by just about everybody else and still performed with gusto by young women on Britain's Got Talent and X Factor shows. Dylan's version remains the definitive recording. Possibly because he was going through a divorce from his wife Carolyn, he sings it with such heartfelt emotion and gentle passion it becomes so touching. It is said that royalties of this song have now passed a million pounds.

At 56 his voice had lost some of it's edge but the strength of melody and lyrics in the songs are remarkable. Fast forward to present day, Dylan, now in his seventies, remains as the ultimate singer songwriter, hugely revered, bafflingly idiosyncratic, an enigma and a musical legend responsible for a staggering number of songs.