Bob Dylan's 33 studio album was released today. The pre release reviews are fairly good so this morning I stopped at Target and picked it up on sale for $9.98.
The following is from Wikipedia about the album:
Rumors of the album, reported in Rolling Stone magazine came as a surprise, with no official press release until March 16, 2009 — less than two months before the album's release date. Dylan produced the record under his pseudonym of Jack Frost, which he used for his previous two studio albums, "Love and Theft" and Modern Times. The album is rumored to contain "struggling love songs" and have little similarity to Modern Times.
In a conversation with music journalist Bill Flanagan, published on Bob Dylan's official website, Flanagan suggested a similarity of the new record to the sound of Chess Records and Sun Records, which Dylan acknowledged as an effect of "the way the instruments were played." He said that the genesis of the record was when French film director Olivier Dahan asked him to supply a song for his new road movie, My Own Love Song, which became "Life is Hard" and "then the record sort of took its own direction."
Dylan is backed on the album by his regular touring band, plus David Hidalgo of Los Lobos[4] and Mike Campbell of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.
UPDATE:
I had such a busy day I haven't had a chance to listen to the album in one sitting until tonight. What a great album, I love it! It has a bluesy, border town tired sound. In "feeling" I would compare it to Sinatra's "In The Wee Small Hours"(1955) Dylan's best in a long time. I like it better than "Modern Times"(2006)It's as good as "Time Out of Mind"(1997) if not better. There is not one song I do not like and it's heard to think of a Dylan Album I would say that about since "Blood on the Tracks(1974). None of the songs is great , it's just that they are all good.
A summary of some other reviews as posted on Wikipedia:
Reception has been favorable. The Daily Telegraph, Mojo, The Times and Rolling Stone gave the album 4 stars out of 5. Describing the album as a "murky - sounding, often perplexing record" David Fricke of Rolling Stone writes, "Dylan, who turns 68 in May, has never sounded as ravaged, pissed off and lusty". BBC noted that the album is "a masterful reading of 20th century American folk, albeit shot through with some mischievous lyrical twists" and compares it to "some Chicago urban blues tribute". According to Mojo, "Together Through Life is an album that gets its hooks in early and refuses to let go". The reviewer described it as "dark yet comforting". Uncut' and Blender' gave the album 5 stars out of 5, saying that it was "unbelievably good." During the Flanagan interview, Dylan himself stated that "I know my fans will like it. Other than that, I have no idea". iF Magazine.com says it "explores the bluesy side of his skills in a slight, but delightful set of ten originals."[
Dylan is 68 and I'm getting there, maybe that's why I like it, he sounds like I feel.
