This Topic concerns Bob Dylan’s album Oh Mercy, released in 1989, as a distinct musical work and as a major episode in his late-1980s career.

Its scope includes critical coverage and retrospective assessment of the album; songs such as “Political World,” “Everything Is Broken,” “Most of the Time,” “What Good Am I?,” “Disease of Conceit,” “Ring Them Bells,” “Man in the Long Black Coat,” “Where Teardrops Fall,” and “What Was It You Wanted”; Daniel Lanois’s production and collaboration with Dylan; the recording sessions, alternate takes, discarded material, and broader creative process; the album’s lyrical and artistic themes; and its significance in Dylan’s creative resurgence. The Topic is specifically about Oh Mercy rather than Dylan’s later album Time Out of Mind, other late-1980s albums, or archival books about Dylan.