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Amazon.com Dan Bern's obsession with Bob Dylan (and, to an extent, Elvis Costello) is easy to stomach because he takes himself so humorously. "If you must put me in a box, make sure it's a big box, with lots of windows," he sings, before declaring himself the Messiah, on the talking-blues opener "Jerusalem." He also wonders what would have happened if Marilyn Monroe had married Henry Miller, not Arthur Miller, on the catchy "Marilyn Monroe." The singer/songwriter's debut occasionally drags, especially on long songs like "Wasteland" and "Rome," but this disc hints at a career worth following. --Steve Knopper