Tempest- Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan, Tempest is released September 10th on Columbia records

      The 35th record of singer-songwriter Bob Dylan begins simply with a quiet swung instrumental passage that lasts for about 40 seconds before the song really kicks in. For a man who has generated controversy since his early days on the cafe circuit, this is yet another unexpected twist. Dylan is known for his lyrics, and thus tends to get straight to the point on his albums, examples being Dylan's classic 1965 record Highway 61 Revisited waited no more than ten seconds for the then-youthful singer to snarl the life-changing poetry of "Like a Rolling Stone" and 1975's "Tangled Up in Blue's" lyrics coming in just as early (from Blood on the Tracks).  After the short instrumental passage, the band come in and listeners are taken on a dark journey throughout one of the world's most poetic minds.
    On Tempest, American rock music's favorite son sings "I'll pay you in blood, but not my own" over thumping drums and 1985 Keith Richards guitars before letting out a hearty chuckle, just in case you thought he was kidding. Elsewhere on the album Dylan sings of women turning from his lovers to victims of strange tragedy in a matter of days ("Soon After Midnight)  and "One time, for one brief day, I was the man for you" on "Long and Wasted Years," a gentle anecdote from the perspective of a married man who feels that he and his wife have not loved each other for years. Tempest is Bob Dylan's darkest record in at least a decade, especially considering his last two records, 2009's Together Through Life and Christmas in the Heart, were a Cowboy blues-flavored flashback and Christmas cover album, respectively. Despite Tempest's dark nature, the album is not without it's light moments, its Cowboy-blues flashbacks and its standard blues tunes. Opener and first single "Duquesnse Whistle" is an up-beat tromp through the narrator (presumably Dylan's) childhood while "Early Roman Kings" recollects the early blues of Highway 61 Revisited's "Tombstone Blues."
    Though Tempest is full of great and diverse songs, there are two tracks that will no-doubt get the most attention: album closer "Roll on John," Dylan's heartfelt, albeit late, tribute to none other than John Lennon and Tempest's title track. "Roll on John" is a sweet tribute to Lennon, Dylan's acquaintance that recounts Lennon's murder in addition to remembering his legacy fondly. While Dylan's tribute is no doubt sincere and sports Dylan's most beautiful chorus since 1997's "Not Dark Yet," some of the Lennon references come off as a bit forced, "Come together right now, over me" and "Slow down, you're moving to fast" both spring to mind, but in a career such as Dylan's, a little silliness is warmly welcomed. "Tempest" in it's 14 minutes recounts the crash of the Titanic, both fictional and historical, in a way that only Bob Dylan can. "Tempest" packs the fear on the ship when it crashed, the band playing a waltz for the passengers, James Cameron's blockbuster movie Titanic and a character of Dylan's own creation called The Watchman into just one song. While "Tempest" may be no "Desolation Row," this reviewer believes that it will certainly prove to be one of the highlights not only of Bob Dylan's later history, but of his whole career. Tempest is an excellent album, but even if Dylan's unique ideas for the album hadn't come out as beautifully as they did, even if he hadn't been able to even spit out the high notes of "Duquesne Whislte," Bob Dylan didn't "need" to have another great record, he could've stopped making music years ago, but thankfully for listeners, he hasn't.