I Contain Multitudes


"I Contain Multitudes" is a single by the American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on April 17, 2020. The song appeared on Dylan's 2020 album Rough and Rowdy Ways. The title of the song is taken from the poem "Song of Myself" by Walt Whitman.
The song was released, unannounced, less than a month after Dylan's previous single, "Murder Most Foul". The two singles were the first original material released by Dylan since his 2012 album Tempest.

Critical reception

While reviewing Rough and Rowdy Ways in his Substack-published "Consumer Guide" column, Robert Christgau said the track "provides exactly the right thematic sendoff" within the context of the album's "elegaic retrospective". Mark Beaumont of NME called it a "sanguine personal exposé" and "a kind of literary folk 'My Way', a porch chair portrait of a life fully lived", in which Dylan "peels away the details of his journey with the grace and conciliation of a master making his peace".