"[The Philosophy of Modern Song] is less a rigorous study of craft than a series of rhapsodic observations on what gives great songs their power to fascinate us. Dylan, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2016, worked on these for more than a decade, though they flow more like extemporaneous sermons."--Ben Sisario, The New York Times

"[A] rich, riffy, funny, and completely engaging book of essays." --David Remnick, The New Yorker

"An homage to songwriting by the master of the art"--AARP

"THE great book of 2022....utterly extraordinary....not only one of the great books of the year, but of the past decade...It is unexpected in every way...a magnificent book of music criticism disguised as a memoir and a set of off-the-cuff fantasies and confidences...That's its genius. It is not framed as a work of music criticism; it is a lifelong performer's attempt to get deeply into a pop song panorama and a lifelong consumer of other singers' takes as a member of their audiences. He is talking to the reader in a way that is unique and immediate and familiar to us. He is saying things that are fresh--even wild and radical--on every other page of the book...The book has gobsmacked me...In these pieces of unique music criticism, he's doing something with his voice few of us ever imagined he would do...If the Swedes want to go ahead and give him still another Nobel Prize for Literature, I for one, will applaud vigorously. Let any possible objector read this book first."--Jeff Simon, The Buffalo News