Slow Train Coming

iTunes Review

Slow Train Coming marks one of the most beguiling turns in Bob Dylan’s career, as he embraced born-again Christianity after experiencing divine intervention at a tour stop in Tucson, Arizona. While Dylan’s strict, non-ironic religious conversion alienated much of his longtime fanbase Slow Train Coming shows that his newfound convictions weren’t so much a reinvention of his identity as a new prism through which Dylan continues to examine his lifelong themes. “I Believe In You” describes overwhelming romantic love even if it was written as a devotional hymn. By the same token, “Slow Train” describes the looming terror of the modern world with as much detail and frustration as “A Hard Rain’s A Gonna Fall.” Producer Jerry Wexler brings a bluesy, moody feel to the album, aided by Mark Knopfler’s guitar and Barry Beckett’s keyboards. Despite the album’s overtly Christian leanings, Slow Train Coming succeeds on a balance of accessibility (the Jackson Browne soundalike “Precious Angel”) and vulnerability (“When He Returns,” which features some of the most emotionally naked singing of Dylan’s career).