This album has been the source of a lot of easy mocking, but Bob Dylan has rarely been as transparent as he is on Christmas in the Heart. In recent years, he has been examining American folk traditions on his radio show and albums; the next logical step is Christmas music—a body of music that truly constitutes America’s best-known songs. He signals his inquiry into visions of Christmas with the album’s varied art—a Currier and Ives-like cover, a Betty Page pin-up Santa inside, along with a photo of musicians in Santa suits from days gone by. His voice seems particularly raspy because he has framed it in one of the most traditional of Christmas music settings, surrounded by faceless female vocalists that recall countless tracks from the early 1960s.

That contrast and his grizzled presence these days has made Christmas in the Heart seem absurd to many, but Dylan has rarely sung with as much tenderness as he does here, and when he gets to a conjunto take on “Must Be Santa,” he sounds like he’s actually having fun. It is a little odd to hear him sounding so straightforward, but is he really as straightforward as he seems? The relationship between Christmas song sentiments and the singers is frequently less clear than it seems, and that’s the case here. Is the Jewish Dylan really into “The First Noel,” or is his relationship to the song and the act of singing it something more complex? Or, if he’s still born again—I’m not sure of his current spiritual status—does he really look forward to Santa sailing up with his presents in a canoe? The bottom line is that Dylan’s as enigmatic as ever, but the questions this time are at the meta-level.