Bob Dylan: Infidels (Columbia 38819)

DESPITE ITS arch title and a few lyric barbs that beg interpretation as renunciations of his Born-Again episode, Bob Dylan's new album is far from a formal rock policy paper. In fact, Infidels represents a bracing return to the hard edged, socially acerbic folk-rock that brought the former Mr. Zimmerman his broadest platform. The loss of his sectarian focus has freed him to resume the freewheeling energy and poetic idiosyncrasies long missed in his work.