Anxiety, confidence, weariness, excitement: contradictory emotions clamour at the prospect of a new Dylan album. To these can now be added misgivings about his commercial hook-ups and renewed curiosity, following Chronicles, Scorsese’s film, and his waspish, gnomic radio shows. Nonbelievers could use Modern Times as a prize exhibit: loosely, 12-bar blues, a waltz and a dirge; lyrics that veer from the breathtaking to the banal. Disciples may come to see it as Love and Theft part two, and none the worse for that. One of the key details, again, is the voice, which on When the Deal Goes Down is a cross between a caress and a croon, full of asides and weary sighs, and on the epic closer, Ain’t Talkin’, is at its most obtuse. Other superb songs sure to reveal further colours and depths on future listening include Someday Baby, Workingman’s Blues #2 (“I’m trying to feed my soul with thought”) and the stunning, bass drum-punctuated Nettie Moore.

Columbia

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