Bob Dylan : Together Through Life :: Review
Seemingly unstoppable, Bob Dylan is a man who does not rest upon his laurels. Fresh from releasing the archival set “Tell Tale Signs” in October, Dylan is back with his new album “Together Through Life.” Recorded in Fall 2008 and co-written with Robert Hunter, “Together Through Life” is yet another trump card in Dylan’s critical rebirth. “Together Through Life” is a loose and breezy album thematically tied together with romantic issues that stands as a strong contrast to the moodier “Modern Times.” “Together Through Life” is a dry and gritty album that captures the feel of a small Tex-Mex town thanks to the accordion talents of Dylan’s newest band mate David Hidalgo of Los Lobos fame.
Together Through Life” opens with a stinging blues lick by Mike Campbell accentuated by Hidalgo’s squeezebox on the apocalyptic “Beyond Here Lies Nothing.” On “Beyond Here Lies Nothing” Dylan’s narrator sings of the love he will share as the world burns away. “Behind Here Lies Nothing” channels “Black Magic Woman” and leads into the jazzy ballad “Life Is Hard.” “Life Is Hard” was originally written for the Olivier Dahan film “My Own Love Song” and casts Dylan’s lovelorn narrator with the hard reality of moving on without his companion. “Life Is Hard” is song that is sandwiched between the enigmatic “Beyond Here Lies Nothing” and the snarly “My Wife’s Home Town.” By sequencing the songs in this manner, Dylan has created a mini-opera of a newfound love quickly turning sour. Whether intentional or not, it offers a snapshot of the themes covered on the remainder of the album.
Dylan’s stay in the southwest is echoed in “If You Ever Go To Houston” where the gun-toting author treads a dangerous ground while looking for a lost love as he traverses the entire state of Texas. “If You Ever Go To Houston” has a musical cousin in “This Dream of You” a lovely Tex-Mex waltz where the narrator still finds troubles with his search for his lost love. Not all of “Together Through Life” is filled with this type of soul searching as Dylan offers several humorous asides in “Shake Shake Mama” and in the darkly funny “It’s All Good.” As Dylan turns the phrase on its ear, he closes an album that finds him adapting to a new weird cultural landscape with restored vigor.
Rating: 
