Time (The Revelator) is the third studio album by American singer-songwriter Gillian Welch. All songs were written by Welch together with David Rawlings and were recorded at RCA Studio B, Nashville, Tennessee,^[1] with the exception of "I Want to Sing That Rock and Roll", which was recorded live at the Ryman Auditorium as part of the sessions for the concert film Down from the Mountain.

Welch said of recording "Revelator," "It was a mic test – the version on the record. Dave just said, 'play 'Revelator' and it was okay, let's try it and we used the mic test." Rawlings added, "We played it once and it was great because we hadn't played it in months. We got that first take feeling."^[2]

According to Rawlings, "I Dream a Highway" had never been played before it was recorded. "So, we played it twice and I edited both versions together. But, I wanted that because I knew it was a minor song that had ... There was a lot that could happen with the harmonies and the guitar playing than if we'd done it a lot of times, so we could just travel through a lot more of it than if we knew where we were supposed to start and where we were supposed to end."^[2]

More information Aggregate scores, Source ...

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	86/100[3]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[4]
Chicago Sun-Times	[5]
Entertainment Weekly	A−[6]
The Guardian	[7]
Los Angeles Times	[8]
Pitchfork	8.1/10 (2002)[9] 9.6/10 (2023)[10]
Q	[11]
Rolling Stone	[12]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	[13]
Spin	5/10[14]

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Welch and Rawlings received a great deal of recognition for their work on Time. The album received many award nominations and was included on many "best album of the year" lists by critics. It has since been included on a number of "best of all time" lists.

In 2009, the album was ranked number 7 on Paste's "The 50 Best Albums of the Decade" list.^[15] It was also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.^[16] The album was ranked 64 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 100 greatest albums of the decade,^[17] and in 2020 the album was ranked number 348 in their updated list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.^[18]

All songs written by Gillian Welch and David Rawlings.

1. "Revelator" – 6:22
2. "My First Lover" – 3:47
3. "Dear Someone" – 3:14
4. "Red Clay Halo" – 3:14
5. "April the 14th Part 1" – 5:10
6. "I Want to Sing That Rock and Roll" – 2:51
7. "Elvis Presley Blues" – 4:53
8. "Ruination Day Part 2" – 2:36
9. "Everything Is Free" – 4:48
10. "I Dream a Highway" – 14:39