Fifty years after his eponymous debut recording, septuagenarian Bob Dylan has released the 35th studio album of his storied career. The self-produced Tempest, recorded with Dylan’s touring band and Los Lobos’s David Hidalgo, echoes themes familiar to listeners of Dylan’s recent work. Building on traditional forms, Tempest traverses the back roads of American music—with blues, country, and folk dotting the album’s landscape.
Ever the storyteller, eternal themes of love and death, revenge and redemption are gravelly voiced by Dylan in haunting tales; the title cut’s 14-minute epic, Tempest, is a 45-verse waltz of the Titanic tragedy. Ever since the passing of Dylan’s “Christian years,” religious fans have looked to each new release for biblical content. Tempest does not disappoint as the album is shot through with the supernatural. The track “Pay in Blood” reminds us, “Man cannot live by bread alone/I pay in blood, but not my own.” (Columbia)
About the Author
Robert N. Hosack is Executive Editor for Baker Publishing Group, and he is a member of Church of the Servant CRC in Grand Rapids, Mich.