Folk legend Bob Dylan has attacked the quality of modern music recordings, dismissing them as “atrocious“.

The singer said he could not think of a decent-sounding record made in the last two decades.

Dylan added that even the songs on his forthcoming new album, his first in five years, sounded better in the studio than on CD.

“You do the best you can, you fight that technology in all kinds of ways, but I don’t know anybody who’s made a record that sounds decent in the past 20 years, really,” the 65-year-old musician told Rolling Stone magazine.

“You listen to these modern records, they’re atrocious, they have sound all over them.

“There’s no definition of nothing, no vocal, no nothing, just like – static.

“Even these songs probably sounded ten times better in the studio when we recorded ’em.

“CDs are small. There’s no stature to it.”

Talking about the music industry’s complaints that illegal downloading meant people can get music for free, Dylan said: “I was like, ’Well, why not? It ain’t worth nothing anyway’.”

Dylan has released eight studio albums in the past 20 years and 44 official albums over his career.

His new recording, Modern Times, is out next Tuesday and features 10 original tracks.