Album of the week: Bob Dylan

For a change, the master of the rambling tale is keeping things short and sweet. Clocking in at just over 45 minutes in total these 10 songs have a different feel from the long, drawn-out affairs of recent years. Nevertheless they continue the Dylan renaissance that began over a decade ago with Time Out Of Mind and continued with Love And Theft and Modern Times. Each has been getting progressively more bluesy, and from the off it's clear this album is going even deeper into that world than Dylan has before. The opener Beyond Here Lies Nothin' sounds like a standard almost straightaway, all slow beats and Deep South licks. Life Is Hard and My Wife's Home Town are more chilled, but still this is blues through and through, rather than the folk, or even folk rock on which Bob built his name. Could it be that through his research for his excellent show Theme Time Radio Hour Bob has been building up an interest in musical roots that he's never thought of exploring before? There are further tweaks to Dylan's trademark style as well – accordion pretty much replaces harmonica throughout and there's violin where you might expect acoustic guitar. Jolene is a highlight, but no, nothing to do with the Dolly Parton version, unless you count the fact that it's pretty brief – fading out in the middle of a rocking solo that Bob would probably have let run for another minute or so in another life. Likewise with I Feel A Change Comin' On, the penultimate track, which seems to contemplate mortality, as Bob has been wont to do in recent years, with some emotive lyrics that prove he's most certainly still got it. He bows out with the more upbeat It's All Good... and it is. That's the 33rd studio album done, dusted and flecked with genius... Got time for a few more Bob?