Together Through Life

Sony

3.5 stars

I listened to this while making home-made ravioli on Saturday night, and I fell into a trance. I think it was Dylan’s voice. It’s never sounded so deep, raspy and exhausted – almost like he’s been beaten and left for dead. But the mood is hard to identify. On tracks such as opener ‘Beyond Here Lies Nothin’’, ‘Life Is Hard’ and ‘This Dream of You’, Dylan assumes the role of lusty, melancholic crooner, but nevertheless with an overarching air of contentment or resolution. On others, like ‘Jolene’ and ‘It’s All Good’, he is almost jocular and flippant. In fact, ‘It’s All Good’, that careless catchphrase of the eternal optimist, is perhaps a fitting way for the album to end – because Together Through Life is a good, but certainly not great record. There is nothing particularly memorable about it, but listening to Dylan will always be a pleasure.

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