Bob Dylan

Together Through Life might lack the cohesiveness of Dylan's Love and Theft and Modern Times, but its gruff energy and ace performances (Los Lobos accordionist David Hidalgo and Petty guitarist Mike Campbell) make it a spirited collection. Dylan is rootsy and moody, striding through "Beyond Here Lies Nothin'" with a second-line Chicano strut, sneering come-ons in "Shake Shake Mama" and landing with a south-of-the-border lilt on "This Dream of You." Even if the themes are erratic and the lyrics a bit dashed off, the album's raw energy packs a bar-brawling punch.

Bob Dylan has sung in many voices on his records: the nasal-braying alarm of "A Hard Rain's
A-Gonna Fall"; the acidic dismissal in "Like a Rolling Stone"; the country hermit on The
Basement Tapes; the grizzly wisecracking drifter on 2001's Love and Theft and 2006's
Modern Times. But Dylan, who turns 68 in May, has never sounded as ravaged, pissed off
and lusty, all at once, as he does on Together Through Life. It is a murky-soundi... More >