Together Through Life

1. Beyond Here Lies Nothing
2. Life Is Hard
3. My Wife's Home Town
4. If You Ever Go To Houston
5. Forgetful Heart
6. Jolene
7. This Dream Of You
8. Shake, Shake Mama
9. Feel A Change Coming On
10. It's All Good

• Play.com Review
  
  Bob Dylan's 33rd studio album, Together Through Life, is just the latest chapter in this remarkable musician's epoch-making career. No artist from the sixties, perhaps with the exception of Neil Young, has been able to consistently sustain such astonishing musical creativity and remain relevant. Inspired by his song, 'Life Is Hard', written for the French road movie My Own Love Song (directed by Olivier Dahan), Dylan has mustered a collection of songs that wouldn't sound out of place on a classic Chess record from the fifties. More laid back and whimsical than he was on the bitter protest of Love And Theft (2001) and Modern Times (2006), has the 67-year old troubadour finally found peace?
  
  An impressive mixture of sounds both old and new, Together Through Life, like so many of his records, takes an eclectic turn, this time down the road of Cajun-inspired, Tex Mex blues. Whilst Bob tackles producing duties under the pseudonym Mike Frost, he has bolstered the regular touring band with David Hidalgo of Los Lobos and Mike Campbell of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. The opener, 'Beyond Here Lies Nothing', perfectly captures the album's predilection with love during tough times, backed by Hidalgo's exceptional accordion work (a re-occurring sound throughout the record). The sentimental ballad, and genesis of the album, 'Life Is Hard', bristles with a French vibe, not surprising given its origins, with the singer at his crackling, crooning best. 'My Wife's Town' backs the Chess comparisons, such is its bluesy roadhouse sound, recalling Muddy Waters' 'Mannish Boy'. One of the highlights of the album, 'If You Ever Go to Houston' is beautifully cinematic in its scope and scale, whilst Dylan sings the lyrics with an earnest, positively joyous enthusiasm not heard on enough of his records. Inspired by the Obama era, Bob's playfully titled 'I Feel A Change Coming On' is a perfect continuation, nay amendment, of his counter-culture classic, 'The Times They Are A-Changin'. Typically prophetic, the song quotes Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in its cryptic foretelling of what might be in store for the American people beyond the honeymoon. Closing out proceedings, the breathless 'It's All Good' sees the bard bark about the current global crises only to fall back, sarcastically, on the sentiment of the song's title, proving that he has lost none of his wry humour, even during the darkest of times.
  
  Romantic, foreboding and humourous, Together Through Life will surprise many who have feasted on his recent return to form. However, beneath the musical adventures and sonic experimentation, this is pure Dylan. Veering from the relentless to the ramshackle, and as preoccupied with the future and the present as it is the past, the album is never anything less than enthralling. The voice of a generation might just have to take in another flock if this is anything to go by!

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