From a foot-tapping train song to tales of midnight murder or a ballad on the “Titanic”, Bob Dylan’s playfully sinister new album “Tempest” hits shelves next week, half a century after his debut record. In his self-produced 35th studio album, the 71-year-old poet of American folk rock sweeps from dark tales of doomed love and betrayal, to apocalyptic stories of good and evil, or others full of tough-guy swagger.
Speaking to Rolling Stone magazine about the album, Dylan — who was born to a Jewish family, real name Robert Zimmerman, but converted to Christianity in the 1970s — said he set out wanting to make a religious record. Along the way he switched tack, leaving an album peppered with ominous Biblical overtones, blending rock, blues, folk and jazz, and where — in his own words — “anything goes and you just gotta believe it will make sense.” Jaunty — danceable even — the opening track “Duquesne Whistle” for one is anything but a religious dirge: set to an irresistible chug-chug of a bass line, it revives a long-gone tradition of American train songs. “Listen to that Duquesne whistle blowing/Sounding like it’s on a final run,” rings the chorus to the first track on what — though he will not say so himself — could be Dylan’s last album. Unveiled online 10 days before the album release Monday in Europe and Tuesday in the United States, the video for “Duquesne Whistle” mines dark territory under an upbeat veneer — in a way that could sum up the album. It sees a happy-go-lucky young man set his sights on the wrong girl, only to end up bundled into a van, tied up and beaten while Dylan — a sinister, pimp-like figure — strides the streets with a motley crew of hangers-on in tow. This is one of many flashes of cinematic violence — delivered with a wry smile — that dot the album.
Dylan whips up a ‘Tempest’, 50 years on
