THE creative renaissance that Bob Dylan has enjoyed for the past decade continues in today’s release of “Together Through Life,” a 10-song collection in which pop’s poet laureate sounds spontaneous, sarcastic and sometimes sentimental.
As in his recent CDs “Modern Times” and “Love and Theft,” this album expresses itself through the blues: simple, stripped-down arrangements that recall the music of Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon and John Lee Hooker.
The lyrics on this 33rd studio album (sung through pipes battered by almost 68 years of howling) are less nebulous than his past work. Lust and desire are frequently explored on this record, notably in the song “Jolene.” There’s a very good character tune in the humorous “My Wife’s Home Town” (which happens to be hell). And in the jolly end-of-the-world-final track, “It’s All Good,” Bob happily chronicles the miseries of life in these troubled times.
Musically, the opening track “Beyond Here Lies Nothin’ ” is the most pleasurable. It’s blues rock supported with horns as well as accordion riffs by David Hidalgo, on loan from Los Lobos. Hidalgo’s squeeze-box accents lend a number of the tracks a Tejano flavor, which slightly breaks the blues hold on “Together Through Life.”
On this mostly good CD, the depressingly bleak lost love song “Life Is Hard” — wherein Bob croaks wearily — is a bad fit with the other tracks on the record. It has a mopey tempo and an old-fashioned mandolin ballad melody during which Bob’s vocals are more cringe-inducing than usual.