Long way home

Madonna be damned,the real master of reinvention is Bob Dylan. The maverick singer donned the mantle of,by turns,a folksy protest poet,a blues singer,a pathbreaking rock-n-roller...

Madonna be damned,the real master of reinvention is Bob Dylan. The maverick singer donned the mantle of,by turns,a folksy protest poet,a blues singer,a pathbreaking rock-n-roller,born-again Christian who went back to Judaism too many,really,to keep count of. In his 33rd studio album,Together Through Life,which debuted at the top of the US and the UK charts,the singer is once again exploring his blues roots,albeit with a softer sound.

There is always a tendency to read more into Dylans songs than there actually is. Its a trick that the master bard came up with himselfsongs seemingly about love and sex and all that jazz,always have just that extra bite which indicates that theres more to these seamy stories. Hes always used the slice of life stories to talk about deeper issues of isolation and spiritual bondage. However,those looking for the cutting irony and message-mongering that came with his iconic songs like Like a Rolling Stone,Blowing in the Wind and A Hard Rains a-Gonna Fall,will be disappointed with this new collection.

The message are still there and so is the ironic twang,but its not all that obvious as in his previous avatarsits a lot more muted and subtle in its approach. The only thing familiar is Dylans husky,sandpapered voicestill reminiscent of the Beat generation-and even that seems a tad unfamiliar. You know its Dylan,but age seems to have mellowed him down.

The singer/songwriter has teamed with The Grateful Dead songwriter Robert Hunter for most of the songs on the new album. The album opens with the dark Beyond Here Lies Nothing and builds the mood for the rest of the collection. There is occasional comic reliefwhether intentional or not is up to the listener to decide-like in the song My Wifes Hometown where Dylans henpecked husband avatar tells us that said town is Hell. The overall mood of the album might border on the grim,but there is a lively Tex-Mex feel to it-whether its the strumming of the guitar,Spanish-style or the use of the accordion in If You Ever Go to Houston,a track about a repentant drunk.

Although the album is definitely less hyped than his last outing in Modern Times,Together Through Life is nowhere close to his classic album like Blood on the Tracks. But its definitely less disastrous than his electronic avatar during the Bringing it all Back Home period.

Bob Dylan Together Through Life,Rs 499.

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