Bob Dylan

CD CHOICE: Tempest Columbia *****

So which Bob are we dealing with here? For his 35th studio album, Dylan has a long line of personae to choose from. It could be Righteous Bob, Angry Bob, Mystery Bob or even Humorous Bob. Or it could be a combination of all the above and more – Dylan has forever yanked our chains, and Tempest shows that his appetite for subversion and play is as keen as ever.

In his thoughtful 2010 book, Bob Dylan in America, Sean Wilentz concluded that “with the masked, shape-changing American alchemist, it was impossible to know too much for sure”. Suitably warned, the wise listener will approach the 71-year-old’s first collection of new music in three years with care.

The layers of meaning take time to reveal themselves, but, like the old-time, rock’n’roll carny he is, Dylan dropped a

few enticing hints in advance. Tempest was to have been

about God. “I wanted to make something more religious,” he told Rolling Stone. But it turned out that with this record, “anything goes and you just gotta believe it will make sense”.

Certainly Dylan’s beliefs, occasionally leavened by his offbeat humour, are a key thread running through the bulk of these 10 compelling tracks. But the spectre of death is here, too, and the reflection afforded by age. Frequently he wraps all three into the dark and complex texts, not least on the title track, a 14-minute epic reworking of the Titanic story: “They waited at the landing and they tried to understand/But there is no understanding of the judgment of God’s hands”. That song was inspired by the Carter Family’s early treatment of the disaster but Dylan, typically, muddies the water, so to speak.

His magpie instincts are everywhere in evidence: traditional folk song and structure are enlisted for the fascinating pair Scarlet Town and Tin Angel, while bluesman Muddy Waters is key to the propulsive Early Roman Kings. The band, essentially drawn from his touring outfit, colour the rushing stream of words with sinewy blues licks, steel guitar, violin, mandolin and accordion.

From the opening Duquesne Whistle, a jaunty slice of western swing with a Hawaiian flavour, to the closing warm tribute to Lennon, Roll On John, this is a Bob Dylan at ease with his legacy, challenging his audience to follow him one more time. bobdylan.com

Download tracks:Titanic, Scarlet Town, Tin Angel