Review Roundup: Bob Dylan – Together Through Life

At this point, Bob Dylan could release a CD of duets with Fergie and it wouldn’t particularly damage his reputation – he’s probably the most untouchable musician in the world.  But when he releases an album, critical standards for judging it are already very high, higher than even those used on other legends from the era of jukeboxes and penis plaster casts.  (I think Dylan is expected to be new, if not fresh, on every CD in a way that a band like the Rolling Stones are not.)  Together Through Life, Dylan’s latest, is on store shelves today.  I’ve compiled the consensus from a few major critics below. 

The LA Times gives it four stars: “both tossed off and carefully designed to feel that way.”

The Chicago Tribune is a bit harsher, ranking it in the “middle tier” of Dylan’s late work.  “‘Less a grand picture than a grainy snapshot of an artist between stations.”

Rolling Stone agrees: “a mixed bag of this decade’s Dylan.”

“Musically, this is quite a trip through the United States of Americana,” enthuses the HuffPo. “It’s always nice to hear a musical pioneer just relax and apply that thing he or she knows best.”

The NYT cops out wisely, going more for the poetry analysis route rather than the thumbs up/thumbs down verdict.  “The songs on Together Through Life are about love, but not its redemptive qualities. They suggest that love is sweet and quaint and exciting and even necessary, but not good for you.”