Critics misidentified Dylan’s mediocre New Morning as a great comeback.

Evidence

On the other hand, New Morning, Bob Dylan’s quickly released, optimistically titled, and mediocre follow-up to Self Portrait, had been gratefully received as a return to form. “You walk down Eighth Street and the face is everywhere,” Lucian K. Truscott IV, who regarded Self Portrait as “an exquisite and unique musical statement,” reported in the Voice. “NEW DYLAN the magic-marked signs say and there he is.” — J. Hoberman, Everything Is Now, 1647

Categorization

• XREF: Evidence for the reader’s thesis that the counterculture rewarded conventional ‘return to form’ signals — connects to claims about cultural stagnation and nostalgia.