A little clarification here: the main issue with Together Through Life isn't really the border town sound, which admittedly wears me out well before the album is over. More importantly, it's the writing and the slightness of the songs.
The big improvement with Tempest is the storytelling and narrative devices. What Dylan unleashes here are fascinating, evocative tales, with Pay In Blood and Tin Angel two of the meanest, most vengeful things he's ever recorded.
The title track, the 14-minute epic about Titanic, is a lot of fun. I love the reference to DiCaprio (though he takes it in a whole new direction), and it's a nice mixture of humor, history, tragedy, and poetry. Perhaps not as deep musically as his other recent long tracks like Highlands or Ain't Talkin', but I'd probably choose to hear it over Joey from the Desire album.
Track #3, Narrow Way, reminds me a lot of Tombstone Blues. And no surprise, it's not an improvement. But it's upbeat and fun and at near the top of the album doesn't bug. Early Roman Kings, at least musically, is the clunker here for me. Not only does it bring back the sound of Together Through Life, but its simple blues arrangement is something that's been done a million times, and Dylan himself has done it before. It adds virtually nothing to his repertoire.
The closer, Roll On John is occasionally cliche (especially with the "shine your light" and "burn so bright" in the chorus), but what saves the song is the fact that Dylan doesn't get overtly personal too often, and there's a clear love here for the memory of John Lennon, and the music (esp that little piano part in the background) makes this sound like something that could have come from Lennon himself during the Imagine/Mind Games/Walls and Bridges period. It's a nice way to go out.
This probably has the same number of highlights as Modern Times, but I'd say it's a bit more diverse and energetic. Is there anything on here as good as Spirit On The Water or Workingman's Blues? Tough call.
