Maps of Music

Tempest (2012)

Where the lyrics of Tempest take you, and where it was really made.

The title sparked rumors that it would be Dylan's final album, but Dylan said the record is simply titled Tempest, not Shakespeare's The Tempest.

Key places

Where Tempest was recorded (2012)

Recording site Groove Masters — The album was recorded at Jackson Browne's studio in Santa Monica, California, in sessions from January to March 2012. Scott Litt engineered the sessions. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Statue on the cover (2012)

Album cover Pallas-Athene Fountain — The cover photograph shows a statue at the base of the Pallas-Athene Fountain in front of the Austrian Parliament Building in Vienna. The figure represents the Moldau. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Tempest: thirty-fifth studio album by Bob Dylan
• Released 10 September 2012 in the United Kingdom and 11 September in the United States
• Issued by Columbia Records as a CD, an LP, and a digital download
• Dylan wrote all the songs himself, except "Duquesne Whistle", co-written with Robert Hunter
• Last Dylan album to feature original material until Rough and Rowdy Ways in 2020

Background

• Recorded from January to March 2012
• Produced by Dylan under the pseudonym Jack Frost
• Sessions featured Dylan's Never Ending Tour band and David Hidalgo of Los Lobos
• Hidalgo's Mexican instruments, including the accordion and the tres, were added to the sound
• Dylan welcomed those sounds into his music
• The album's title initially led to rumors that it would be Dylan's final album
• Dylan said the title Tempest is different from Shakespeare's The Tempest

Recording

• Recorded at Jackson Browne's Groove Masters Studios in Santa Monica, California
• Engineered by Scott Litt, known for his work with R.E.M., Nirvana, and The Replacements
• Litt used a pair of old omnidirectional Neumann microphones to record many musicians at once
• Dylan's voice stood out, and Litt did not alter it

Cover

• Cover art uses a dark red duotone photograph of a statue at the base of the Pallas-Athene Fountain in Vienna
• The statue personifies the Moldau, one of the main rivers of Austria-Hungary
• The photograph was taken by Alexander Längauer from his Shutterstock portfolio
• The package was designed by Coco Shinomiya
• Like Dylan's albums of the past 15 years, the packaging has minimal credits and no printed lyrics
• The deluxe limited edition CD includes a 60-page notebook of vintage magazines

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Disc 1

Disc 2

Disc 3

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Born Robert Allen Zimmerman on May 24, 1941, in Duluth, Minnesota; raised in Hibbing, Minnesota.
• Moved to New York City in January 1961 to pursue a music career.
• Signed to Columbia Records after playing harmonica on Carolyn Hester's album; debut album Bob Dylan released in 1962.

Members

• Solo artist; backed over the years by bands including the Hawks/the Band, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, and his touring band led by bassist Tony Garnier.

Career

• Breakthrough with The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (1963); protest songs such as "Blowin' in the Wind" became anthems for the civil rights and antiwar movements.
• Went electric with Bringing It All Back Home and Highway 61 Revisited (1965) and Blonde on Blonde (1966), provoking controversy among folk fans.
• Motorcycle accident in 1966 led to nearly eight years without touring; Basement Tapes recorded with the Band.
• Converted to Christianity in the late 1970s and released gospel albums; won Album of the Year Grammy for Time Out of Mind (1997).
• Has toured since 1988 on the Never Ending Tour; won an Academy Award and ten Grammy Awards; awarded the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Metacritic: average score 83 from 31 reviews, indicating universal acclaim
• Mojo Magazine: called it Dylan's best musical album of this century
• Tiny Mix Tapes (Riboflavin): said its epic scale makes his few previous albums look like short stories
• Entertainment Weekly (Rob Brunner): said Dylan remains as magical and mysterious as ever at thirty-five albums
• Rolling Stone (Will Hermes): gave five out of five stars, calling it the single darkest record in Dylan's catalog
• American Songwriter (Jim Beviglia): gave four and a half out of five stars
• The Daily Telegraph (Neil McCormick): called it among his best ever
• Chicago Tribune (Greg Kot): gave three and a half out of four stars
• Uncut (Allan Jones): gave ten out of ten stars
• The Gazette (Bernard Perusse): gave five out of five stars
• Tampa Bay Times (Sean Daly): gave an A rating
• USA Today (Edna Gundersen): gave four out of four stars, calling it brilliant
• The Guardian (Alexis Petridis): gave four out of five stars but downplayed the superlatives of other reviews

Reappraisal

• MSN Music (Robert Christgau): gave a B+ and complained about the autohype machine
• Christgau was unimpressed with the title track and the closing number

Records

• Peaked at number 1 in Norway
• Peaked at number 3 on the Billboard 200
• Rolling Stone named it the fourth best album of 2012
• Rolling Stone named Pay in Blood the 9th best song of 2012
• Placed seventh in The Wire annual critics' poll

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• Dylan's reply to the rumor: Shakespeare's last play was called The Tempest, while the record is just plain Tempest.
• The single Duquesne Whistle came with a music video directed by Nash Edgerton, who had directed videos for two previous Dylan songs.
• Rolling Stone wrote that the Duquesne Whistle video initially seems like a Charlie Chaplin-inspired bit of light comedy before a shockingly dark turn.
• A segment of Early Roman Kings appeared in a Cinemax commercial for the TV series Strike Back: Vengeance.
• Scarlet Town appeared during the end credits of the first two episodes of Strike Back: Vengeance, which aired on 17 August 2012.
• Hidalgo first leaked news of the album when he spoke about it in an interview with The Aspen Times.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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