Oh Mercy is the twenty-sixth studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on September 12, 1989,[1] by Columbia Records.

[4] In the spring or summer of 1988, U2 singer Bono put Dylan in touch with producer Daniel Lanois, and the two agreed to work together although the recording sessions would not commence until early 1989.

[8] Music critic Tim Riley would echo these sentiments, writing that "'Series of Dreams' should have been the working title song to Oh Mercy, not a leftover pendant.

[citation needed] Two more outtakes, "Born in Time" and "God Knows", were set aside and later re-written and re-recorded for Dylan's next album, Under the Red Sky.

"The Oh Mercy outtake of 'Born In Time' was one of those Dylan performances that so surrendered itself to the moment that to decry the lyrical slips would be to mock sincerity itself", wrote author Clinton Heylin.

[11] The photo on the cover of the album shows a mural that Dylan came across on a wall of a Chinese restaurant in Manhattan's Hell’s Kitchen on 9th Avenue and 53rd Street.

Robert Christgau of The Village Voice wrote, "Daniel Lanois's understated care and easy beat suit [Dylan's] casual ways, and three or four songs might sound like something late at night on the radio, or after the great flood.

"Taken over by Daniel Lanois, master of a shimmering and distinctive electronically processed guitar sound...[the album] is overdone", writes Wyman.

To celebrate the album's 20th anniversary, Montague Street Journal: The Art of Bob Dylan dedicated roughly half of its debut issue (published in 2009) to a roundtable discussion on Oh Mercy.

Michael Azerrad in a Rolling Stone article felt that "it would be unfair to compare Oh Mercy to Dylan's landmark Sixties recordings".

[27] All tracks are written by Bob DylanAccording to the liner notes of the album [28] Musicians: Production: ^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.