Changing 'times'

You may have seen the recent photos of Bob Dylan looking uncannily like Charlie Chaplin, and his 44th album shares a title with Chaplin's 1936 largely silent classic about automation, big business and the overreaching intrusion of the state into private lives. Sort of like today.

Dylan sings like he has been traveling by boxcar since 1936; such tunes as the nearly eight-minute "Spirit on the Water" and "Beyond the Horizon" have a sweet, old-timey, Depression-era feel. But images within the same song leap across decades: "The Levee's Gonna Break" could be about New Orleans 2005 or the great flood of 1937.

Four of the 10 cuts push the six-minute mark, including nearly nine-minute closer, "Ain't Talkin'." "Modern Times" was recorded earlier this year with Dylan's touring band of bassist Tony Garnier, drummer George G. Receli, guitarists Stu Kimball and Denny Freeman and multi-instrumentalist Donnie Herron.

Dylan will support the album this fall on a tour featuring rotating support from the Raconteurs, the Foo Fighters (acoustic) and Kings Of Leon.