Geldof's achingly honest and eclectic-sounding new album -- his first in nearly a decade -- had plenty of sad drama leading up to its Tuesday release.

Most significantly, there was the drug overdose of his ex-wife Paula Yates in 2000, three years after the suicide of her lover, INXS singer Michael Hutchence.

Sounding a lot like that other Bob -- Dylan -- on this moody, brooding, often angry collection, Geldof doesn't try to disguise numerous references to Yates.

"I saw a picture of you grinning / Yeah, that smirk covered your entire face / It almost split your head in two / I heard you sold it to OK / Sell a photo of you laughing / The more you hoot, the more they pay," Geldof sings on the first track, One For Me.

And you have to wonder if Geldof refers to Hutchence in Inside Your Head: "You got a life, you left me for dead / What the f---'s going on inside your head / So why put a noose around your neck? What the f---'s going on inside your head?"

The album's roots-rock-meets-trip-hop sound falls somewhere between Dylan, Tom Waits, Nick Cave, Van Morrison and Leonard Cohen, but lyrically, the standout track is the drenched-in-Cohen-territory Pale White Girls: "Pale white bodies / Stretch for love / Scratching the flesh / Scraping of bones / Limbs that are trembling babe / For something to hold / Languid and liquid / Well maybe I'll stay."

Other highlights are The New Routine, Mudslide and My Birthday Suit, and the North America-only bonus tracks Cool Blue And Easy and The Original Miss Jesus.

Track Listing
1. One For Me
2. $6,000,000 Loser
3. Pale White Girls
4. The New Routine
5. Mudslide
6. Mind in Pocket
7. My Birthday Suit
8. Scream in Vain
9. Inside Your Head
10. 10:15
11. Cool Blue & Easy (bonus track)
12. Voodoo Child (bonus track)