The first words to escape Bob Dylanâs lips on his 35th studio album, âTempest,â which hits the streets Sept. 11, are those of the rollicking opening track, âDuquesne Whistle.âÂ
âListen to that Duquesne whistle blowinâ/Blowinâ like itâs gonna sweep my world away,â Dylan sings in a craggy voice that mirrors the lyricâs image of an aging locomotive belching black smoke full of pulverized coal particles as it burns down the tracks.Â
Music critics around the world are having a field day trolling for meaning as they pick through the lyrics of the albumâs 10 new songs, but many are also stretching to communicate just how raspy the 71-year-old singer-songwriterâs vocal cords sound this time out.
Here are excerpts from what several reviews have had to say about a voice that would never get Dylan past an initial audition for âAmerican Idolâ:
â[W]ith a deeply wounded voice, he sounds deadly serious throughout. . . Stories told by a man in his 70s are taken with more weight than a man in his 20s. And when said man sounds like he's been eating nuts and bolts for the past half-century and he's a born storyteller, a living legend and trickster, said weight gets even heavier.â -- Randall Roberts, Los Angeles Times
âNot that he was ever a soothing vocalist, but Dylanâs voice has been in ruins during many of his recent concerts, somewhere between Howlinâ Wolfâs growl and a tubercular wheeze. Itâs hard to imagine what newcomers to Dylanâs music might think as they hear that ancient rasp, but it somehow suits the subject matter of these songs.â -- Greg Kot, Chicago Tribune
âThe shattered voice sounds less like a cow stuck in an electric fence this time. More like Tom Waits gargling with crushed glass.â -- Mark Beech, Bloomberg
"Bob Dylanâs voice isnât getting any prettier. At 71. . . Dylan sings in a wheezy rasp that proudly scrapes up against its own flaws. That voice can be almost avuncular, the wry cackle of a codger who still has an eye for the ladies. But it can also be calmly implacable or utterly bleak, and itâs completely believable when Mr. Dylan sings, in 'Narrow Way,' 'Iâm armed to the hilt, and Iâm struggling hard/You wonât get out of here unscarred.' â -- Jon Pareles, New York Times
âDylan is so close-miked you can practically hear the phlegm rattle.â -- Andy Green, Rolling Stone
âDylan's voice is a guttural growl now, that's no secret, but he knows how to enunciate and sing. None of the words pass by unnoticed.â -- David Bauder, Associated Press
âHe's never been mistaken for Enrico Caruso, but on his death-haunted latest, âTempest,â the 71-year-old is in especially fine rattle, wringing every wrecked nuance out of his almost unbearably expressive voice. He applies that battered instrument to 10 remarkable new songs.â -- Rob Brunner, Entertainment Weekly
"Pay in Blood" features Dylan's vocals at their harshest, sneering, "I pay in blood, but not my own,"Â --Â Glenn Gamboa, Newsday
âAt times it sounds (and seems) like this is Bob Dylan-pretending-to-be-Tom Waits-pretending-to-be Bob Dylan.â -- Simon Sweetman, Blog on the Tracks
ââ¦a gravelly voice as gnarled and knotted as an ancient oak.â -- Andy Downing, 77 Square
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Critic's Notebook: The Titanic in Bob Dylan's 'Tempest'
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