Dylan Gets Some Help in the Studio : BOB DYLAN “Oh Mercy.” Columbia. ****:***** Great Balls of Fire:**** Knockin’ on Heaven’s:*** Good Vibrations:** Maybe Baby:* Ain’t That a Shame

Dylan’s albums have occasionally seemed more like ragged demos than carefully polished works, a reason some industry pros and even fans have regarded them as careless or, even more extreme, as examples of willful indifference by this notoriously independent singer-songwriter.

But that raw, first-draft feel was simply in keeping with the purity and immediacy of the folk, blues and country music traditions that have so long inspired Dylan. For him, the message is the song, and the song is best served by intimacy.

What makes “Oh Mercy” an especially important and appealing record is that it achieves the studio production values that the industry and most of the mainstream rock audience seek, without sacrificing the intimacy that Dylan prizes.

Much of the credit for this delicate balance goes to producer Daniel Lanois, whose credits also include U2’s “The Joshua Tree” and Peter Gabriel’s “So.” (See article on Page 71.) Lanois most likely helped coax Dylan into more tailored and punctuated vocals and helped shape the wonderfully soulful arrangements that are performed by members of the Neville Brothers’ band. In the end, however, the message is indeed the song, and Dylan has delivered his most gripping collection of tunes since 1983’s “Infidels.”

The opening track, “Political World,” offers the biting social inventory that has long characterized Dylan’s most compelling work, and the view again is a bleak one that describes a society adrift: “We live in a political world / Where courage is a thing of the past / Where houses are haunted, children not wanted / The next day could be your last.”

It’s a storm-cloud theme he explores elsewhere on Side 1, coloring the thoughts with humor (“Everything Is Broken”), gospel edges (“Ring Them Bells”) and epic sweep (“Man in the Long Black Coat”). But Dylan has generally balanced his social inventory with probing self-examination, and songs such as “What Good Am I?” and “Shooting Star” explore the areas of personal conduct and relationships with the poignancy and candor that have been part of his music since--remarkably--Kennedy was in the White House.