BOB DYLAN Together Through Life (2009)

14 May 2009
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The last 40 years have seen Mr. Robert Allen Zimmerman otherwise known to the dear listener as Bob Dylan recording over 30 studio and 13 live albums. And we’re not counting the collaborations, singles and other minor stuff. More important, we’re talking real quality here. That’s hell of an input, don’t you think? In a world so obsessed by media, propaganda, swine flu and Justin Timberlake, Bob Dylan stands like a giant of what we believe is a sensible music. Bob has been aging gracefully for a long time now. And while his fame remains unabated, it has perhaps been bruised and shaped more interestingly by success rather than it would have been by the lack of it. ‘Together Through Life’ certainly has a loose feel, which is a natural thing to do after a weighty effort like its predecessor ‘Modern Times’. In other words, if Bob is capable of doing a fun album, that would be this album. Have a laugh, listen to the words of ‘My Wife’s Hometown’, which not only sounds like a hearty blues song, but is also partly credited to no other than Willie Dixon. While the opener ‘Beyond Here Lies Nothin’ resembles The Doors, ‘Life is Hard’ goes back straight to the banks of Mississippi, if you know what I mean. Here’s the gentle sound of the Spanish guitar and everything else. You just check it out. Even Bob may cut it loose sometimes and throw a great party. The primary identity of ‘Together Through Life’ is blues, which we could suspect, Bob Dylan could produce even in his sleep and that would be the main point against the album. It surely won’t be a classic of all times, but I doubt that someone expects Dylan to re-invent himself at this stage. There’s nothing else left to prove for him really. The only thing that matters is that Bob Dylan (with whose strange nosy voice we have all more or less come to terms with by now) is more of a relevant artist of our times rather than antiquate deity of the past.
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