A highly collaborative effort, it was Dylan's second consecutive album to receive almost unanimous negative reviews. Released during a period when his recording career was experiencing a slump, sales were disappointing, reaching only number 61 in the U.S. and number 32 in the UK.

"Even by Dylan standards, this album has had a strange, difficult birth," wrote Rolling Stone critic David Fricke. "Its release was delayed for more than half a year, and the track listing was altered at least three times. If the musician credits are any indication, the songs that made the final cut come from half a dozen different recording sessions spread out over six years." Like its predecessor Knocked Out Loaded, Dylan once again used more collaborators than normal.

In a review published in his Consumer Guide column, Robert Christgau wrote, "Where Self Portrait was at least weird, splitting the difference between horrible and hilarious, [Dylan is now] forever professional—not a single remake honors or desecrates the original. All he can do to a song is Dylanize it, and thus his Danny Kortchmar band and his Steve Jones-Paul Simonon band are indistinguishable, immersed in that patented and by now meaningless one-take sound." Christgau would later call Down in the Groove "horrendous product".

Recently coming off of the album Knocked Out Loaded, Dylan took the opportunity to further work on his collaborative efforts. The album features several guest appearances for the first time. Most prominent was the appearance of The Grateful Dead, who provided the album with one of the notable high spots on the album with the single "Silvio". The track was later included on Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Volume 3 and The Essential Bob Dylan.

...
Wikipedia