SOUND CHECK.

BOB DYLAN: ``Modern Times'' (Columbia) - Four stars

On his first new album in six years, Dylan is still haunted by those age- old questions of faith, love and sex. Using the familiar musical forms of blues, rock and pop, the legendary singer-songwriter -- in his many guises -- traverses a landscape that's equal parts treacherous, beautiful and humorous. And in doing so has released his most intimate work in years.

Part of that comes from the production, which Dylan, using his touring band, did himself under the pseudonym Jack Frost. For once, it's easy to understand the gravel-voiced singer.

As he has done from the beginning of his career, he borrows liberally from the musical past (which may be part of the joke of the album's title).

A Chuck Berry rhythm informs the opening cut, ``Thunder on the Mountain,'' in which he tells us, ``I've already confessed -- no need to confess again.'' Perhaps past self-recrimination himself, he then offers, ``For the love of God, you ought to take pity on yourself.'' And on ``When the Deal Goes Down'' -- a country waltz that is part love song, part meditation on mortality -- he notes, ``We learn to live and then we forgive.''

But love (and sex) can drive him crazy. On ``Rollin' and Tumblin' '' -- a take on the much reworked blues number -- he declares, ``This woman so crazy, I swear I ain't gonna touch another one for years.'' But like so many of his songs, it takes a turn into the subjects of love and forgiveness. While ``Workingman's Blues #2'' and ``When the Levees Break'' are about social concerns, both address deeper issues of the soul.

On an album that gets better on repeated listening, Dylan also throws a few change-ups. ``Beyond the Horizon'' has a casual jazzy swing of a '40s number, and ``Spirit on the Water'' has a lilting sweetness that ends with the challenge: ``You think I'm over the hill/ You think I'm past my prime/ Let me see what you got/ We can have a whoppin' good time.'' Dylan certainly is.

-- Rob Lowman

JESSICA SIMPSON: ``A Public Affair'' (Epic) - Two and one half stars

The single life suits Simpson. Her first album since divorcing Nick Lachey is lighthearted, though not without referencing the past. Oh, the drama. Come to find Simpson cried on sister Ashlee's shoulder last Christmas listening to Patty Griffin's ``Let Him Fly,'' warbled here at album's end. As she puts it in the liners, Simpson's ``beginning the next lifetime'' with a shout-out to her peers on the roller-disco tune ``A Public Affair.'' And though her voice lacks punch on Dead or Alive's hip-swiveling Flashback Lunch anthem ``You Spin Me Round (Like A Record),'' Simpson makes good on ``B.O.Y.,'' which posits the bland blonde fronting the Cars (a sample from the Ric Ocasek-penned ``Just What I Needed'' completes the air-brushing).

-- Sandra Barrera

ANN HAMPTON CALLOWAY: ``Blues in the Night'' (Telarc) - Three and one half stars

Few can own a song the way Calloway does on her first Telarc disc. Her Broadway-tested, cabaret-tempered and blues-infused voice is right at home just about anywhere it wants to be. Working at times with the all-female Diva Jazz Orchestra as well as a small group anchored by bassist Christian McBride and pianist Ted Rosenthal, Calloway has everything from Bessie Smith to Barbra Streisand covered. You'll never hear ``Blue Moon,'' ``Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most'' or the show-stopping ``Blues in the Night'' the same way again. Calloway's own positive-thinking style of songwriting rears its upbeat head on three tracks, with her humor saving them from the saccharine -- barely. Still, to hear that alto turn into a positively burning soprano -- there's nothing quite like it.

-- Steven Rosenberg

VARIOUS: ``The Mozart Album'' (Deutsche Grammophon) - Four stars

This 250th anniversary bouquet to Salzburg's favorite son has popular Russian soprano Anna Netrebko joining colleagues Bryn Terfel, Elina Garanca, Thomas Quasthoff and Rene Pape in sparkling recordings of arias and duets from Mozart operas, accompanied by podium stars Claudio Abbado (debuting his newly founded Orchestra Mozart) and Sir Charles Mackerras. Featured in excerpts from ``Idomeneo,'' ``Le nozze di Figaro,'' ``La clemenza di Tito'' and ``Don Giovanni,'' the luminous Netrebko -- making her role debut as Massenet's Manon opposite Rolando Villazon in performances with the L.A. Opera starting Sept. 30 -- reigns in a tribute with broad appeal.

-- Fred Shuster

OLD CROW MEDICINE SHOW: ``Big Iron World'' (Nettwerk) - Four stars

On its sophomore release, methamphetamized old-timey string band OCMS comes off like Bob Dylan at a barn dance. Infused with a deep knowledge of America's folk idioms, the quintet applies sweet, starchy harmonies and furious guitar, fiddle and harmonica attacks to two salacious reveries, a balancing pair of bad-woman blues, dual tales of working-class heroism (Woody Guthrie's ``Union Maid'' gets all hopped up just in time for Labor Day) and some sharing of sublimely silly wisdom. Then there's ``I Hear Them All,'' so far the most inspiring protest song of this sorry century. Produced by David Rawlings, whose partner Gillian Welch plays drums on a couple of tracks. See OCMS on Tuesday at the Henry Fonda Theatre in Hollywood.

-- Bob Strauss

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