Together Through Life
by Bob Dylan
  • Record Label: Columbia
  • Release Date: Apr 28, 2009
Metascore
76

Generally favorable reviews - based on 27 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 18 out of 27
  2. Mixed: 9 out of 27
  3. Negative: 0 out of 27
  1. Spin
    60
    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.
  2. The Guardian
    60
    The reality is less exciting, as Together Through Life--neither masterpiece nor disaster--proves.
  3. New Musical Express (NME)
    60
    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.
  5. NOW Magazine
    60
    These 10 tunes feel dashed off.
  6. Billboard
    60
    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.
  7. Q Magazine
    60
    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]
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  8. Pitchfork
    54
    Together Through Life isn't without its charms--Dylan never is. It's just very minor, especially by his standards.
  9. Sputnikmusic
    50
    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.
  10. Austin Chronicle
    40
    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.

Awards & Rankings

38
#38 Most Discussed Album of 2009

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
8.7

Universal acclaim- based on 71 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 63 out of 71
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 71
  3. Negative: 3 out of 71
  1. mhmusicnmovies
    Sep 7, 2010
    8
    certainly not as great an effort as Dylan's amazing comeback trilogy... however Together Through Life is a very fun album and is sure tocertainly not as great an effort as Dylan's amazing comeback trilogy... however Together Through Life is a very fun album and is sure to please Bobby's many many fans.… Full Review »
  2. ArthurM.
    Aug 4, 2009
    5
    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 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.… Full Review »
  3. LeeO.
    Jul 20, 2009
    10
    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 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.… Full Review »
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