By Randall Roberts

Los Angeles Times

Bob Dylan is on a roll.

After the surprise release last month of the 17-minute song “A Murder Most Foul,” the 78-year-old singer-songwriter has dropped “I Contain Multitudes.” The creeping meditation clocks at a far less imposing 4:38, but Dylan packs odd accents into every measure.

“Today, tomorrow and yesterday too/ The floors are dying/ Like all things do,” sings Dylan, he phrasing casual, his graveled delivery just above a whisper, ending the opening verse with a typically inventive turn of phrase: “I fuss with my hair/ And I fight blood feuds/ I contain multitudes.”

Dylan’s hide-and-seek approach to new music suggests an artist perfectly content doling out single-song releases minus the typical fanfare that comes with an Official New Bob Dylan Album. The last one of those he released —excluding a series of covers albums —was “Tempest,” eight years ago. He’s also been dipping into his vaults.

Details are sparse for now on when and where “I Contain Multitudes” was recorded. The song, a reference to a line from Walt Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass,” arrived without a press release, notes on instrumentation or musicians.

On “Multitudes,” Dylan sighs into the microphone like an exhausted reaper. “I got a telltale heart like Mr. Poe/ Got skeletons in the walls of people you know,” he sings to sparse, clean electric guitar accompaniment. “I drink to the truth/ And the things we said/ I’ll drink to the man who shares your bed.” Elsewhere he rhymes “frolic with all the young dudes” with “I contain multitudes.” He name-checks Anne Frank and couples “Indiana Jones” with “the Rolling Stones.”

“I Contain Multitudes” crawls along like a gunshot victim abandoned outside the emergency room. But lyrically, Dylan’s having fun with his lines, and phrases them with a devil-may-care joyfulness. Multitudes indeed.