Together Through Life

Album: Together Through Life

Recorded: December 2008

Released: April 2009

Songs / length: 10 / 45:33

Following a creative flourish that resulted in his superb trilogy of albums from 1997 to 2006, Dylan seems to have fallen again into a fallow period. Asked to write a song by film director Olivier Dahan for 2010 movie My Own Love Song, Dylan composed My Life Is Hard, and it appears that this song was the launchpad for Together Through Life. Written in collaboration with Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter, the album is the second effort from this songwriting duo, and in my view it's only slightly less mediocre than their first collaboration, 1998's Down In The Groove. There are some exceptions, such as My Life Is Hard and the opening track Beyond Here Lies Nothin', but the general quality is clearly below that of Dylan's three previous records.

Musically, it's more conventional and less varied than other Dylan records of this time, especially previous album Modern Times. In a rare interview at the time, Dylan talked of wanting to capture the sound of the Chess and Sun record labels that were active in the 50s, and Together Through Life certainly has a nostalgic feel. Over three years from 2006 to 2009, Dylan had been hosting his wonderful radio show, Theme Time Radio Hour, weekly one-hour meditations on certain themes, and it's clear that this deep dive into early American pop music deeply influenced Together Through Life. You can still access the TTRH archive here – highly recommended.

While most of the material in the middle of the record is quite forgettable, Together Through Life does start and finish strongly, with the romantic This Dream Of You a real highlight, bittersweet reflections from a "nowhere café" on finding strength and solace in love. Though his voice sounds completely shot on the final two songs, Dylan's croaky and scratchy vocals add to the sense in the lyrics of his being broken but unbowed, and there's a defiant optimism in I Feel A Change Comin' On. This feeling isn't quite so obvious on closer It's All Good, with Dylan emptying the cliché of all meaning and using it to signify the lazy acceptance – in Chomsky's words, "manufactured consent" – of society's ills (dishonest politicians, the decline of rural life, poverty and crime).

Album rating: C+