CD Odyssey Disc 404: Bob Dylan

I call this next review Phile Not Found, for reasons that I won't explain out of respect for your intelligence, dear reader.

Disc 404 is…Together Through Life

Artist: Bob Dylan

Year of Release: 2009

What’s Up With The Cover?:  I think this is a photo of a young couple kissing in the backseat of a car.  It reminds me of a simpler time when seat belts weren't mandatory.  Yeesh.

How I Came To Know It: I dig Bob Dylan, so when I heard he’d put out a new album in 2009 to much critical acclaim I was excited to buy it.  Here it is.

How It Stacks Up:  I have seventeen Bob Dylan albums.  Competition is tight among my favourites, and “Together Through Life” is not one of my favourites.  I’ll say 16^th or 17^th, below even the lowly “Planet Waves” that I reviewed way back at Disc 69.

Rating: 3 stars, but only barely.

I love Bob Dylan, yet during the course of writing this  blog entry I have twice left my seat to go and watch an amazing early round tennis match at the French Open, where Serena Williams was finally defeated by Virginie Razzano on her 8^th match point of the game.  Then I left it again to watch a movie with Sheila.

So yeah, the album doesn’t inspire my commentary, but here’s hoping the third time’s the charm.  And this is a damn shame, because I love Bob Dylan.  I’ve reviewed seven previous albums and I gave four of them five stars, and two more four.  However, unlike the many critics that gushed when “Together Through Life” was released, I found it merely good, and in places, decidedly average.

It could be that it suffered from bad timing, since the review that preceded it (Neil Young’s “Le Noise”) is such a ready foil.  “Le Noise” is an album by an aging, but still legendary folk singer/songwriter that is fresh and engaging.  “Together Through Life” is just an album by a legendary folk singer/songwriter.

I don’t expect Dylan to reinvent his style every time he releases a record (he prefers to do that live in concert, I understand) but I still want to be inspired by his genius.  On this album, he has clearly decided to get back to basics, and that alone I’m perfectly happy with (Young himself did it on “Prairie Wind”).

In Bob’s case, basics are very stripped down compositions with traditional blues arrangements made to sound timeless.  This alone is an art – to be able to compose old school music that is original and not derivative.  Unfortunately, the lyrics lack the usual zing that Dylan can deliver.  Dylan seems intent on playing it totally straight, and as a result they are missing their usual provocative quality.

Very little stands out lyrically, although the final track “It’s All Good” resonated with me enough that it bears mention.  “It’s all good” is an expression that has spread like a cancer over the last few years.  It is a terrific example of modern society’s determined efforts to avoid expressing any kind of value judgment.

“It’s all good” almost always means “it actually isn’t good, but I’m going to pretend it is because I don’t want to discuss how it is bad, or how I disagree with it.”  Designed to avoid conflict, it is kind of like “I hear you” only with more self-loathing.

Dylan has picked up on the same problem, with a song full of verses where things aren’t all good to highlight how we’re often not saying very much to each other – and doing it willfully.  One of many examples:

“The widow's cry, the orphan's plea
Everywhere you look, more misery
Come along with me, babe, I wish you would
You know what I'm sayin', it's all good.”

Not a great song, but one that reminds me that I use these expressions as well in moments of weakness, when I should be speaking with more precision and honesty.

Bob Dylan has always had an innate poet’s instinct for phrasing when he sings, and that ability is still present on “Together Through Life.”  The problem is that the very basic song construction mutes the ability for him to use that ability to greatest effect.  I am one of the few that actively likes Dylan’s voice, but these kind of songs are better suited to folks like Muddy Waters or John Lee Hooker, or even Leonard Cohen.  It isn’t that Dylan is bad – he’s good – I just wish on this type of music he was better.

The best thing on the record is the fabulous guitar playing, which holds up every song whether it is front and centre like on “My Wife’s Home Town” or tucked in behind an accordion like on “This Dream of You.”  When I looked to see who played I was unsurprised to find it was Heartbreaker Mike Campbell, who usually holds it together for fellow Wilbury Tom Petty.  This type of bluesy, groove-driven record totally suits Campbell’s style, and lets him shine.

Even a weak Bob Dylan album is still good enough, and Mike Campbell pulled this one up to three stars, when I started this review intent on going with two.  However, the music just doesn’t interest me.  Of course, Dylan has never apologized for taking his craft where he wants to go, and fans be damned.  I actually love that about him.  Just don’t ask me to gush over it and say it is all good, when it is just good in places.

Best tracks: I Feel A Change Comin’ On, It’s All Good.