The freewheelin’, notorious singer/songwriter Bob Dylan comes back with his first album of original songs since the fairly underwhelming 2012 release, Tempest. The legacy of Bob Dylan is a hard one to live up to; even for Dylan himself. With albums like Highway 61, Blonde On Blonde, and my personal favorite Blood On The Tracks, it’s near impossible to follow up with an album even close to the influential and creative songwriting chops of his earlier works.

Even though his newest album didn’t live up to his earlier works, its still pretty goddamn great.

The first half of this album is absolutely fantastic, 9/10 songs; no question. The opening track, I Contain Multitudes, has a very expansive and creative vocabulary and a simple but emotional and effective instrumentation that really gives the song a good sense of progression throughout. Following that is the song False Prophet, a song with an aesthetic reminiscent of a saloon in the 1860’s, but with clever messages and allusions to Dylan’s interpretation on modern day politics. Dylan really uses his old, grumbly, breaking voice to his advantage here, giving off a very Tom Waits-ian vibe, which I think fits the theme and instrumentation of the song perfectly.

 The western theme keeps going with My Own Version of You with the absolutely infectious slide guitar. After that you’ve got I’ve Made Up My Mind To Give Myself To You, an absolutely gorgeous love song with the subtle backing vocals really giving it a sense of depth. The next track is the short and sweet Black Rider, a country influenced song with a more eerie tone than most songs on the album, with lyrics I interpret as him coming to terms with his old age and mortality. Dylan really sets the scene in this track. I get the image that he is in the middle of the desert speaking to this horse rider, coated in black leather with his face covered by his hat, until it is eventually revealed that the rider is a younger, more reckless version of himself. I love it!

Unfortunately, I feel like the album starts to lose momentum and character in the second half. Goodbye Jimmy Reed has themes of religion and Dylan’s relationship to it, which I like hearing about, but everything about the song itself sounds like very VERY generic sounding blues. Next is Mother of Muses, an absolutely heart wrenching song. From Dylan’s old, beaten voice (again, really using his transforming voice well) to the mellow guitar and the backing, subtle cello in the background.  I see this song as Dylan looking back in his long, adventurous, and eventful life and reflecting on it. Calling back to historical figures like MLK, how he’s falling for a woman. And the line about how “he’s already outlived his life by far”. God, what an absolutely tear jerking line. 

Unfortunately the next song, Crossing the Rubicon suffers from a generic instrumentation much like Goodbye Jimmy Reed. I also don’t think that this song warrants such a long run time, it really drones on and on to me. I also think the story he tells in this is his least interesting to me on this album. Key West is up next, a 9 and a half minute song about the gorgeous city of, big surprise, Key West. Lots of allusions and comparisons to heaven on this track, beautiful language as always, but again I feel like there isn’t enough substance for it to warrant its long run time.

And finally, the 17 minute long epic about the assassination of JFK, Murder most Foul. I understand the subject matter deserves a lot of time and respect, and I think he mostly does well to keep the flow moving throughout the song. The strings on this song are absolutely gorgeous, and many many lines to really immerse yourself in that time period, speaking of Woodstock, the Beatles, Nightmare on Elm Street, and many others. Unfortunately, due to the long run time, their are some lyrics I find less than desirable. Namely the many many lines about what to play on the radio.

I feel like the second half of the song definitely could’ve been cut down a bit, maybe even by a whole minute or two. But even with these flaws, this is still a good song with an important message behind it.

Overall I think this album, while not at the same impossible level of quality as his earliest work, and most definitely not perfect, it is a step up from his previous, most recent offerings. The language used throughout this album is as vast and clever as ever, Bob Dylan uses his voice to his advantage, and the instrumentation is mostly unique and overall produced well. While it does drag in a few places for me, and there are definitely underwhelming tracks, don’t think that should be any reason to not listen to this 2020 gem.

7/10

-Jay