Bob Dylan
Album: Tempest
Label: Columbia
Tracks: 10
Website: http://www.bobdylan.com

Growling like he means it, Bob comes out of the western sky brandishing a new album which, to believe many of those that heard it first, is a work of the purest genius. It's good, very good in fact, much like most of his 21st century output, but if you're going to describe an album by the chap who delivered Blonde on Blonde, Blood On the Tracks etc etc as 'genius' then you'd better check exactly what you think the word means in the first place.

Tempest is richly rewarding, beautifully structured, sometimes enlightening, frequently enriching, but it will not change the way human beings write songs, or hear them.

Good, glad we sorted that out. So, what of the music?

Well, it's more of the same lovingly crafted pre-rock 'n' roll that Dylan has favoured for the last decade and a half or so. There's a western swing, rockabilly, bluegrass, Cajun spice about most of these cuts that thoroughly becomes the assembly of fine musicians gathered here. For the most part, Dylan's arrangements (he's producing as Jack Frost again) are typically unflashy, allowing songs to ebb and flow with the lyrical tide.

Never more so than on Long and Wasted Years, a talking blues with a twinkle in its eye in which he makes the most of the dusty dry croak that nature has decreed should be his singing voice these days. Wry, unexpectedly expressive and surprisingly emotive, he reaches for vocal and emotional places he would once have considered out of bounds.

At the other extreme is the 14-minute title track, a ceaselessly spun poem recounting the sinking of the Titanic among other things - it's about as contrary as Dylan gets and, in its own way, quite charming but it ain't (me babe) vintage Bob. Not quite as contrary (or as charming) is Roll On John, Bob's 32 years late response to the death of his friend/foil, John Lennon, in which he quotes the late Beatle's lyrics and one or two interview clips.

Narrow Way and the grating Duquesne Whistle rollick their way through toe-tappin' cliché after knee-slappin' platitude. Far better is Early Roman Kings with a cast of scallywags, lovers, fighters and ne'er do wells that Nick Cave would be proud of. The comparison extends through Scarlet Town's rasping, seedy underbelly and stands its ground again in Tin Angel's richly drawn sketch of a love triangle to die for.

All of which adds up - in case anyone's counting - to a more than worthwhile return on the investment of a life it takes to make and then listen to Tempest.

Presumably, Bob Dylan continues to make music because he has something to say and new things to try. He doesn't know how to do anything else really. So, if he can cope with the weight of his past, surely it's incumbent on us to do the same?

Nick Churchill
www.thegranvillechambers.co.uk