I'm sure most people want to hear about the new Dylan song, "Huck's Tune." It is in fact a very good song, very much in his new style of songwriting: evocative, allusive, elegiac. It's similar lyrically to "Tell Ol' Bill" but I don't like it quite as much, although I prefer it to "Waiting for You" or "Cross the Green Mountain." As always, Dylan's singing is great and the musical backing excellent: quiet, country-waltz-ish. It creates a certain mood and sustains it for four minutes, even alludes to "Moon River," which tells you what Dylan is trying to do here. Another very solid soundtrack entry for Dylan.
One thing, I'm not sure of the recording date, but perhaps pre-"Modern Times" because it would certainly be out of place on that album. Another thing, the title "Huck's Tune" seems to be slapped on (the name of the lead character in the film is Huck), because Dylan doesn't mention the name at all in the song.
The rest of the soundtrack is spotty - two Springsteen songs (and not his best), one by Ryan Adams (whom I never liked), a cheesy jazz version of a Leonard Cohen song (sounds like Barnes & Noble music), and a song sung By Drew Barrymore (which is not that bad - better than some other songs here). After "Huck's Tune," the best songs are Bonnie Raitt's version of "Bartender's Blues" and Kris Kristofferson's new song. There are alos 2 George Jones tunes and "Like a Rolling Stone," which sounds really out of place. Every soundtrack album that features a new song by Dylan always uses old ones as well, must be to capitalize on the price he charges or something.
Anyway, the only reason to own the soundtrack is for "Huck's Tune," which gets 5 stars but the soundtrack only gets 3, so 4 in all.