I’ve been listening to Tempest (the latest effort by Bob Dylan), in the car. This one came out with lots of hoopla, and when I heard the first (and by far the best) cut, Duquesne Whistle, I had high expectations. Although many reviewers seem to think this album is the greatest thing since sliced bread, I think it’s an uneven collection of strange songs, some very compelling and others less than interesting.

Duquesne Whistle is an old fashioned train song. How can you go wrong with that? It starts out sounding like it came right out of the Memphis Jug Band era, then kicks into a more contemporary space.

Listen to that Duquesne whistle blowing Sounding like she’s on a final run….
Listen to that Duquesne whistle blowing Blowing like she’s never blowed before
Blue light blinking, red light blowing Blowing like she’s at my chamber door
You’re smiling through the fence at me Just like you always smiled before Listen to that Duquesne whistle blowing
Blowing like she ain’t gonna blow no more

Sounds to me like the little black train or the Wabash Cannonball – you know, the train that takes you to the good place, The Big Rock Candy Mountain. Excellent tune. It even has a really stylish instrumental break that I wasn’t expecting.

The next song is Soon After Midnight. It starts off with some goofy rhyming couplets, and it sounds a bit like maybe a ballad from the 50s.

I’m searching for phrases,
To sing your praises,
I need to tell someone,
It’s soon after midnight,
And my day has just begun

But it gets darker:

My heart is cheerful,
It’s never fearful,
I’ve been down on the killing floors,

And…

2 timing slim
Who’s ever heard of him,
I’ll drag his corpse through the mud

And ends with…

It’s now or never,
More than ever,
When I meet ya I did’nt think you’d do,
It’s soon after midnight,
And I don’t want nobody but you

Unsettling.

Narrow Way is a cranky rockin’ blues number. Dylan has done a squillion of them. Ho hum. There’s another later on the record too, Early Roman Kings. Pay in Blood and Scarlet Town sound to me like studio knock-offs, as if Dylan had some lyrics on a scrap of paper and they tried making songs out of them in the studio. Yeah, that’ll do. Let’s go get a beer. And then there is Long and Wasted Years, which is more like a poem than a song and is more spoken than sung. It kind of reminded me of Brownsville Girl, but more irritating.

Tin Angel is a rambling story song. I’ve listened to it a few times and I’m not sure what’s going on in it. It seems to be some kind of love triangle murder ballad. It’s compelling, though. I’ll give it some time.

Then we come to Tempest. It’s even more of a rambling story song than Tin Angel, over 14 minutes of song that sounds like it goes on for half an hour. The whole business holds the same emotional tone. There is no chorus to break it up. The melody is more of less basic Carter Family. I confess I can’t hold my concentration through this one. Dylan has done several long story songs, like Desolation Row and Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts, and I thought he really nailed those older tunes-he had me hanging onto the lyrics and satisfied by the melody and the performance. If you haven’t heard, this epic is about the sinking of the Titanic. It even features a guy named Leo (and someone named Cleo – he must have needed a rhyme).

Finally, there’s Roll On John. It’s a tribute song to John Lennon. It’s not the first tribute tune Dylan has done. Remember that one from the 80s about Lenny Bruce (he didn’t rob any churches or cut of any babies heads)? This one fashions some Beatles lyrics into the tune. I wanted to dislike this song but after a few plays, I’m OK with it.

So, overall a mixed bag. Dylan’s voice just gets rougher and rougher around the edges. Sometimes it works for him; other times less so. The songs are mostly dark. Some of them are very good but I think there’s some filler on there too. The band is Dylan’s road band. Good players. They do their best work on Duquesne Whistle. The record is worth giving some time to, but I don’t think it’s nearly as interesting as the rave reviews suggest.