"You think I'm over the hill? You think I'm past my prime? Let me see what you got -- we can have a whompin' good time."

Pretty tough talk from a senior citizen. Then again, he's got a right to be cocky. After all, he's Bob Dylan. Folk icon. Rock trailblazer. Voice of his generation. Author of Blowing in the Wind, Like a Rolling Stone and several dozen other songs that will outlive him and all of us. He's got nothing to prove to anybody. And now that he's realized that and embraced the freedom it brings, he's enjoying a remarkable late-career resurgence.

Zimmy's renaissance began with 1997's rollicking Time Out of Mind. It continued with 2001's mischievous Love and Theft. But with the masterful Modern Times -- his 31st studio album in 44 years -- Dylan truly seems to have hit a new stride. And found a happy medium.

This self-produced 10-song set is more relaxed than Time Out of Mind, more serious than Love and Theft and more varied than either -- but it is no less mesmerizing.

As usual, Dylan casts his spell with a torrent of words. Sometimes he's talking to a lover ("I'd walk through a blazing fire, baby, if I knew you was on the other side"). Sometimes he's talking to God ("I wanna be with you in Paradise, and it seems so unfair / I can't go back to Paradise no more / I killed a man back there"). Sometimes he's uttering threats ("Well, I don't wanna brag, I'm gonna wring your neck"). Sometimes he's topical ("If it keep on rainin' the levee's gonna break"). Sometimes you don't know what the hell he's talking about ("I was thinking about Alicia Keys, couldn't keep from cryin'/ When she was born in Hell's Kitchen, I was livin' down the line").

But even when he makes no sense, you hang on his every word. And on every note from his magnificently weathered pipes. Creaking like a broken screen door, croaking like an old frog, crunching like broken glass under your shoes, Dylan's voice makes Keith Richards sound like a choirboy. But it is perfect for the ragged roots soundtrack that underpins these tales of love and apocalypse. Wading deep into the stream of Americana, Dylan borrows Rollin' and Tumblin' from Muddy Waters.

He recasts Slim Harpo's Shake Your Hips for Someday Baby. He nods to Memphis Minnie for The Levee's Gonna Break. He channels Chuck Berry and Lonnie Johnson for Thunder on the Mountain. He croons Tin Pan Alley ballads, jazzy waltzes and rustic folk.

No matter which way he twists and turns, though, his road-tested quintet follows him with near-psychic synchronicity. When he needs them to wrap his words in a warm blanket of nostalgia, they sound like a vaudeville pit band. When he needs it more refined, they burble like a supper club jazz outfit. When he needs it kicked up, they cut loose like a juke-joint combo.

It is the best of all possible worlds: An artist at the height of his mature powers, with a group capable of casting his work in the finest light.

And that makes Modern Times the latest essential addition to Dylan's discography. And one whompin' good time.

Track Listing:

1. Thunder On The Mountain
2. Spirit On The Water
3. Rollin' and Tumblin'
4. When The Deal Goes Down
5. Someday Baby
6. Workingman's Blues #2
7. Beyond The Horizon
8. Nettie Moore
9. The Levee's Gonna Break
10. Ain't Talkin'
11. Blood In My Eyes
12. Love Sick
13. Things Have Changed
14. Cold Irons Bound