Bob Dylan: Modern Times

Herald rating: * * * * *

Few Bob Dylan albums in past decades come with the description "much anticipated", but this certainly does. Perhaps not since the uneven Desire 30 years ago, which followed the stunning Blood on the Tracks, have so many been keen to hear what Dylan is up to.

Starting with Time Out of Mind in 1997 - a dark and ambitious affair produced by Daniel Lanois - Dylan has been rehabilitated into a musical culture which had relegated him to the sidelines as some quirky eccentric forever on the road where he often bludgeoned his classic songs and adopted the demeanour of an uncommunicative riverboat gambler.

Time Out of Mind was followed five years ago by the even better Love and Theft, and Dylan's resurrection was confirmed. Now comes Modern Times. That title is amusingly pointed because nothing here is "modern" musically. It harks back to much earlier periods in American music, much of it pre-rock.

Self-produced (as Jack Frost) and with his touring band, Dylan essays epic and energised old-style r'n'b - the six-minute Rollin' and Tumblin', which takes its lead from the blues of the same name but embarks on a rockabilly/Route 66 groove - to spooky narratives such as the layered, nine-minute Ain't Talkin', which has a brooding, spiritual tone and sounds like a visionary, Christ-like dream being relayed through the ages.

There are also mellow love ballads, notably the lovely Beyond the Horizon, which recalls his Bing Crosby-like moments on Time Out Of Mind and Love and Theft, and offers simple romantic lyrics such as, "in the long hours of twilight, beneath the stardust above, beyond the horizon, it is easy to love".

The ballad Nettie Moore is a probing, perhaps personal, look at the life of an itinerant and the price paid for the choice, and on the rollicking country blues opener - which cheerfully namechecks Alicia Keys - Dylan sounds like he's having a lot of fun.

The loving and secular-spiritual When the Deal Goes Down is a standout for its warm, human concerns.

And he isn't beyond social criticism. The Levee's Gonna Break may or may not be about post-Katrina New Orleans, but it is certainly pointed. And Workingman's Blues #2 is classic and timeless Dylan - sprawling, urgent but resigned, politicised and heartfelt.

Modern Times is lyrically dense - Dylan enunciates with rare clarity - and he drags phrases or sometimes daringly crushes syllables into lines, but it is also musically simple and engaging because of it.

Dylan at 65 still manages to surprise, confound and - on this diverse, much anticipated album - delight, in songs where love of many kinds is a consistent concern.

Verdict: The 65-year-old offers more probing insight, elusive and allusive lyrics, and rock'n'roll country

Label: Sony/BMG