Most of Bob’s albums up to this point (except for Self-Portrait) sound like the rehearsal tapes of Bob’s new backing band warming up for a tour. It’s just one group of musicians trying to learn a new batch of songs quickly. And whatever you think of that particular group of musicians (Nashville’s finest session men, Mike Bloomfield and Company, The Band formerly known as the Hawks), that’s all your going to get on that album. But rarely has a group of musicians so strongly imprinted a Dylan album as the ones on Desire. If you don’t like Emmylou Harris’s vocals and Scarlet Rivera’s violin, you might as well turn this album off now, there’s nothing on it you’ll like. Even the best songs (“O Sister”, “One More Cup Of Coffee”) are sometimes hard to distinguish from the rest of the album. Lyrically, the songs have a very cosmopolitan, international flavor to them (thanks in most part to Bob’s only long term collaborator, Jacques Levy). Musically there are some moments in here where Bob shows off a bit of sophistication (the double-time in “Romance In Durango” for example), but it’s mostly just typical high-quality Bob. While the Rolling Thunder sound does get a bit grating at times, both “Sara” and “Isis” are particularly strong – perhaps just because they manage to stick out. “Hurricane” actually is a good song regardless of whatever factual errors the lyrics may or may not contain. “Joey” on the other hand... while I’m often in disagreement with the rest of Dylan aficionados over Bob’s over ten minute epics, at least here everyone sees my point: it’s boring. It goes on too long. It’d be a fine song if he just cut like seven verses out of it. Why they can only see it in “Joey” and not “Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands” or “Highlands” is beyond me.