All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Blender

Ever since he figured out how to write tough-buzzard songs, on his 1997 comeback Time Out of Mind, he’s been knocking them out of the park. This one leans hard on ready-made blues in the citified-country-ways style of Chess Records.

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100

Uncut

The album’s a gas, a riot, a hoot.

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100

Los Angeles Times

Chasing allusions is half the fun of listening to Dylan's music. On Together Through Life, the other half involves plainer pursuits, shaking a tail feather and shouting along.

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The Onion (A.V. Club)

For all the pain and peril of the lyrics, there’s a lot of sly humor, too, underlined by the album’s loose, joyful sound.

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Paste Magazine

It ends up being something of a puzzler to behold--at once as crafty and moving as anything in Dylan’s catalog, and yet as improvisational and dashed-off as one of his live albums with The Band or the Dead.

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Slant Magazine

Dylan leaves it to his unique vocals and a smoking set of sidemen to get his point across.

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Prefix Magazine

This crackling album stands to remind that the man can still rock like all hell.

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Tiny Mix Tapes

Dylan shirks responsibility; he puts the onus on us. Fortunately, the impetus the album provides is all we need in order to define its brilliance.

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Rolling Stone

There is a grim magnetism coursing through these 10 new songs--and most of it is in Dylan's vividly battered singing.

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All Music Guide

Sonically, this is right in line with Dylan's 2000s albums, the sound of a well-lubricated traveling band easing into the same chords they play every night, but this isn't strictly roadhouse rock & roll: Dylan remains fixated on pre-rock & roll American music, emphasizing the blues but eager to croon love-struck ballads.

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Mojo

Together Through Life is an album that gets its hooks in early and refuses to let go. [Jun 2009, p.94]

No Ripcord

Only a few songs ('Beyond Here Lie’s Nothin’,' 'Shake Shake Mama,' and 'I Feel a Change Comin’ On') really jump out of the grooves and the rest sounds like our greatest living songwriter coasting a bit--which is a whole lot better than not giving a shit ("Self Portrait") or flailing around aimlessly (pick an 80s record).

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PopMatters

Together Through Life is reliable, steady, willing to give if you’re willing to receive.

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The New York Times

Very little on Together Through Life seems destined for his repertory’s long haul. But whether this is basic devilishness, or Malthus revisited, or acceptance of faith, or just a clever poem juxtaposing protest rhetoric with do-nothing rhetoric, it all suits him.

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Boston Globe

His new Together Through Life seems to be more a chronicle of how love actually feels at different stages than an outright celebration of it, and the grizzled-old-soul-man patina Dylan layers over his barbed-wire croak offers the familiar passion and despair of every relationship.

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Dot Music

In a time where we could have fairly expected another state-of-the-world sermon, Dylan's thankfully stopped the overdone end-is-nigh bell-ringing that's characterised his late-period, allowing the ghosts of romances past and present to permeate Together Through Life.

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Entertainment Weekly

While Dylan's grim-reaper ruminations are familiar territory, Together Through Life does offer some surprises.

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New Musical Express

Together Through Life sounds loose and informal, and you get the impression that its creator had a lot of fun making it. A shame, then, that it’s not quite as much fun to listen to.

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Spin

Having long since traded abstraction for irascibility and wistfulness, Dylan still offers flashes of black humor (“Hell is my wife’s hometown”) over the ten songs, but the fatalism that’s marked much of his recent work is in short supply.

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The Guardian

The reality is less exciting, as Together Through Life--neither masterpiece nor disaster--proves.

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Billboard

There are clunkers, like the half-there torch song "Life Is Hard." But the great thing about 67-year-old Dylan is that even when it's not working, it's working.

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Q Magazine

Together Through Life is not by any yardstick classic Dylan. Even so, it's hard to imagine there's an item in his catalogue that he adores more. [Jun 2009,p.116]

NOW Magazine

These 10 tunes feel dashed off.

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Pitchfork

Together Through Life isn't without its charms--Dylan never is. It's just very minor, especially by his standards.

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Sputnikmusic

It's a shame that the album fails to hit, and in some ways, it's also a shame that it's not terrible, either.

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Austin Chronicle

Closer 'It's All Good' offers the disc's best song, a brilliant idea and hook whose lyrics deserved more investment than that lent by Dylan and his collaborator, Grateful Dead word whisperer Robert Hunter. Beyond that lies nothin' except a wasteland, with nary a pulse for Life's second act.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this album is 8.9 (out of 10) based on 52 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Arthur M. gave it a5:
I like Dylan and I don't begrudge him turning out a casual set of formulaic songs like this -- i just wish it were a better set than this, and not so meretricious. I also wish reviewers could accept that Dylan is as inconsistent and at times as mediocre since his peak in the 1960's as others of his generation are. Witness the equally inconsistent and at times the equally mediocre Paul McCartney -- who, nonetheless, has put out a better string of records the past dozen years or so than Dylan has, albeit, to much less acclaim.

Lee O. gave it a10:
This sounds like what the Band wished they sounded like 40 years ago, and Dylan doesn't sound like a spoiled pissed off 20 something but an old guy who still knows how to rock. I think this is one of his very best.

Joe W. gave it a5:
Nothing special from Dylan, the album doesn't have the same charm that his last 3 great albums had. Some good tunes though, especially Beyond Here Lies Nothin' and the accordion is an interesting touch (though overused).

Fabio L gave it a5:
All I can say is this is mediocre. This album has two good songs and the others are forgettable... but worse! NOT THAT GOOD!! Not just by Bob Dylan standards... but by any really. I'm seeing him in concert in two months and I PRAY he excludes this entire disc from his song line-up. Doubt that will happen though.

Vincent S gave it a10:
This album catches you from the start and brings you floating through a dream like view of life and the world we live in today. Both musically and lyrically it is full of interesting twists and variations. Like the 3 albums that preceded this, Together Through Life stands as a minor masterpiece, independent of Dylan's legacy.

guido a gave it a10:
Like someone just said before: it´s very sad (for the newcomers) that an old man put out the best rock album of 2009. he never sings so bluesy. the album sounds like tom waits meets johnny cash at dylan´s kitchen.

Eoin O gave it a3:
Dylan is has sold has been living off his reputation and brainwashed fans for years now. How anyone can listen to this elevator music and rate it is beyond me. You people are no different from the commercial sheep who love whatever is at No1. Bob Dylan could release a techno/house album and you guys would buy it, and love it. Try to take a step back and listen to how poor his music has become.

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