David Longstreth has been making records for most of the ’00s under various monikers. His most consistent and fully realized project, Dirty Projectors, also happens to be his most accessible. And on its fifth album, the revolving group (Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig was a member at one point) expands both its roster and its scope. Bitte Orca jumps between globe-trotting freak-outs (“Cannibal Resource”), twisty folk (“Temecula Sunrise”) and abstract blues (“The Bride”). And those are just the album’s first three songs. Throughout, Longstreth leads the Projectors – now a sextet – from one indie-rock avant-noise structure to another, picking up some genuine hooks along the way. Highlight “Stillness Is the Move,” sung by guitarist Amber Coffman, even rides a slinky, vaguely hip-hop beat that shows off the Projector’s Brooklyn roots. --Michael Gallucci
The latest solo album by the Band’s drummer and singer is a lot like his last one, 2007’s Grammy-winning Dirt Farmer. Like its predecessor, Electric Dirt is filled with such Americana-approved subjects as trains, family and working the land with your bare hands. The music is rustic and dusty and sounds like it was made by a bunch of friends hanging out on the porch after supper. The album starts with a rollicking cover of the Grateful Dead’s “Tennessee Jed,” which kicks up a bluesy swing and twang, but it soon settles into a sort of musical complacency, tapping age-old themes and Helm’s still sturdy voice for inspiration. --Michael Gallucci
Arcade Fire’s concert DVD is pretty much what you’d expect from a band that includes about 43 members who play instruments most of us can’t pronounce. The 70-minute film is an artsy look at the group’s last tour. Interspersed between song snippets are performances on street corners, in elevators and in hallways. Wacky Canadians!
BOOK
Black Tooth Grin: The High Life, Good Times, and Tragic End of “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott
(Da Capo)
Writer Zac Crain refers to the day that former Pantera guitarist Abbott was murdered onstage as “the 9/11 of heavy metal.” That may be overstating things, but it’s still a tragic end to a short life. Crain recounts Abbott’s childhood loves (Kiss and Van Halen), his addictions (he was a heavy drinker) and his music (he was killed while playing with his new band).
VIDEO
A Bug’s Life
(Walt Disney Studios)
Just in time for Up, Pixar’s second feature isn’t a visual or storytelling marvel like Ratatouille or WALL-E. But it is a charming and funny tale about feuding insects. This new Blu-ray release looks fantastic and features a ton of extras, including the great Oscar-winning short Geri’s Game, outtakes and a bug-related Disney cartoon from 1934.
CDs
Del-Lords reissues
(Collectors’ Choice)
These four New Yorkers helped ignite the roots-rock scene back in the ’80s. Their first three albums – Frontier Days, Johnny Comes Marching Home and Based on a True Story – finally make it to CD. Bonus tracks and liner notes by frontman Scott Kempner round out the working-class anthems, which haven’t lost an ounce of relevance in 25 years.
CD
Chrisette Michele: Epiphany
(Def Jam)
R&B singer Michele’s second album is a breakup record. But Epiphany isn’t looking for an apology, an explanation or even reconciliation. It’s tough, a little hurt and ready to move on. Michele’s jazzy voice glides over the subtle swing of the beats, stopping along the way for gentle oohs and coos. It’s sexy stuff, but don’t get too close – she’ll break your heart.
The last time Elvis Costello and T Bone Burnett made an album together was 1986’s King of America, Costello’s last great record. Since then, Costello has settled into a sort of hipster sage, while Burnett’s become the curator of tasteful Americana, scoring with the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack and Robert Plant and Alison Krauss’ rootsy Raising Sand. Secret, Profane & Sugarcane follows a similar template: unplugged, stylish, subtle … and kinda boring when you peel away its classy shell. The songs are a mix of old and new. Some were recorded by other artists (Loretta Lynn covered “Down Among the Wine and Spirits”), and Costello has even done some of them before (like “Complicated Shadows,” which was on 1996’s All This Useless Beauty). Working with members of the same crack band that backed Plant and Krauss, Costello glides through a set of twangy country, laid-back folk and urbane pop. And most of it’s refined to the point of dullness. --Michael Gallucci
The original Night at the Museum basically ran on the premise of “What happens at the museum after the doors are locked for the night?” Apparently, it’s some wacky stuff. Lock Ben Stiller in there with all the historic artifacts and you’ll get even more wackiness. This CGI-heavy and pop culture-speckled sequel to the 2006 hit is more of the same. This time, Stiller’s former nightwatchman Larry -- now a successful entrepreneur behind a bunch of infomercial crap, including a glow-in-the-dark flashlight – must save his old natural history museum pals from an evil resurrected pharaoh (played by a lisping Hank Azaria) who’s stolen the magic tablet that brings them to life. Adding to that otherworldly problem, most of the museum’s artifacts have been packed away and shipped to the Smithsonian for storage. All of the first film’s characters return: Owen Wilson’s cowboy, Robin Williams’ Teddy Roosevelt, the talking Easter Island statue, the monkey. The Smithsonian adds a bunch of new historical and pop-culture icons to the mix, including Amelia Earhart (a peppy and excellent Amy Adams), General Custer, Ivan the Terrible, Darth Vader and Oscar the Grouch. This Museum is also loaded with cameos by various Office stars, Saturday Night Live alum and Jonah Hill, who plays an overzealous guard who squares off against Larry in one of the movie’s funniest scenes. But a few new twists – classic paintings and photographs now come to life – can’t hide the blah plot, which is pretty much an excuse to trot out some clever sight gags. Some of them are funny; some of them are spectacular in a CGI kinda way. Too bad the story is neither. --Michael Gallucci
After a brief surge in the ’70s (with films like Animal House, The Longest Yard and Slap Shot), the Guy Movie took a hit in the ’80s, as the Teen Movie and the Chick Flick vied for bucks at the theater. The past few years have seen a strong return of the Guy Movie, with Old School, Wedding Crashers and every single Judd Apatow film catering to the facial-hair-and-testicles set.
The Hangover – the new and very funny comedy by Old School director Todd Phillips -- takes the kitchen-sink approach to the Guy Movie. Everything you could possible want in a Guy Movie is here: strippers, hookers, quickie marriages, guns, drugs, booze, used condoms, naked Chinese men, fast cars, puke and public urination. There’s even a Mike Tyson cameo!
A pre-titles sequence sets the scene: Four men are stranded in the desert, all of them are beaten, bruised and bloodied. One of them calls a bride-to-be on his cell, informing her that her wedding – just hours away – isn’t going to happen. The groom is “lost.”
Flashback two days earlier, when four men – groom Doug (National Treasure’s Justin Bartha), his best friend Stu (The Office’s Ed Helms), buddy Phil (Bradley Cooper, who played Rachel McAdams’ dick boyfriend in Wedding Crashers) and the bride’s loser brother Alan (standup comedian Zach Galifianakis in a breakout performance) – are prepping for Doug’s bachelor party in Las Vegas.
They borrow Alan’s dad’s prized vintage Mercedes (you just know the car isn’t going to return in one piece) and some cash from teacher Phil’s student-field-trip fund, and hit the road. They check into a $4,200-a-night suite, go to the roof for a celebratory drink and … wake up the next morning, not remembering a thing. Including how a tiger got in their bathroom, why they now have a baby and where they left Doug.
They spend the rest of the movie piecing together their forgotten night. Slowly, they uncover clues – Stu’s missing tooth, a pricey casino receipt, a hospital bracelet – that lead them on one Vegas adventure after another, part of it in a stolen police car.
The Hangover pretty much raises the bar on the Guy Movie. Unlike Wedding Crashers, Knocked Up, et al., women don’t figure much into the mix here; they’re either girlfriends, wives, fiancées or strippers. The guys constantly take swipes at each other -- dentist Stu’s friends call him “Dr. Faggot,” they make fun of “fat Jesus” Alan’s man-purse – and act the way they think guys should act, which only leads them deeper into trouble. It’s one of the funniest movies of the past couple of years, with enough testosterone to power CaesarsPalace. And be sure to stick around for the end credits, which include hilarious photos of the guys’ lost night, which somehow turns out to be just as wild as the one we saw onscreen.--Michael Gallucci
Has any studio had a run as successful and as glorious as Pixar’s? Certainly not during most of our lifetimes. Starting with 1995’s Toy Story and running through the past two summers’ instant classics, Ratatouille and WALL-E, Pixar’s filmography reads like a list of modern masterpieces: Toy Story 2, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles. Even the animation studio’s lesser movies – like A Bug’s Life and Cars – deliver more heart, joys and laughs than most CGI talking-animal/-vehicle/-whatever flicks.
You can add this year’s contribution, Up, to that esteemed list. In fact, you can move it to the top. Pixar’s 10th film ranks as one of its very best. Along with The Incredibles, it’s undoubtedly the studio’s most human movie -- in both metaphorical and literal terms: There’s not a gabby fish or toy in sight (but there are dogs who kinda talk).
Up is an eyes-wide-open fantasy about Carl Fredricksen (voiced by the always-cranky Edward Asner), whose lifelong dream of being a globe-trotting adventurer has been halted every step of the way. He marries his childhood best friend, a girl who shares his dreams and quest for adventure. Over the years, they live and love and try to scrape up enough cash to visit ParadiseFalls, a mythical wilderness in South America.
After his wife dies, Carl – now an old man with a walker, a bad back and an even worse temperament – spends his days in his ramshackle house, which stands in the middle of a construction site (Carl refuses to sell, even as high-rises go up around him). After he assaults a worker on his property, the court orders him to a retirement community.
So Carl hatches a plan to escape to ParadiseFalls by attaching hundreds of balloons to his house. Surprisingly, it works, and he sets sail serenely above the city streets. All goes well until he hears a knock at the door and finds Russell, an overweight and chatty Wilderness Explorer (it’s like a Boy Scout) who needs one more badge – “assist an old person” – to advance to the next level. A brutal storm steers Carl and Russell miraculously in the middle of ParadiseFalls’ outlining forest. And then Carl’s real adventure begins.
Unlike the meditative WALL-E, Up is filled with thrilling action scenes and plenty of colorful set pieces. Like WALL-E, it’s a stunning visual work (it’s Pixar’s first 3D movie) with an eco-friendly message.
It’s also Pixar’s most adult film (and its second to receive a PG rating): Carl’s wife has a miscarriage, he draws blood after whacking someone on the head and the villain is ruthless in his pursuit of a rare bird. Plus, there’s a tearjerking moment that ranks right up there with Toy Story 2’s “Jessie’s Song.” Most of all, Up is a liberating and breathtaking work, filled with an appropriate sense of adventure. --Michael Gallucci
David Fincher’s misty-eyed fable (based on an F. Scott Fitzgerald story) about a man who ages in reverse comes to Blu-ray with commentary and a four-part making-of doc. Like Benjamin himself, the movie reveals more each time you see it. Here’s your chance to revisit one of last year’s best movies.
DVD
Leonard Cohen: Live in London
(Columbia)
The still-charming Cohen, now 74, runs through 40 years of classics in this concert recorded last year. He tells jokes, flirts with the audience and reworks some great songs, while his excellent band fills in the spaces. The show is also available on CD, but stick with the DVD, where you can see Cohen’s reaction to the enthralled crowd.
VIDEOGAME
Excitebots: Trick Racing
(Nintendo)
Finally, another game we enjoy playing with the Wii Wheel. These vehicles are kinda like Transformers, but without the whole planet-demolishing agenda. All the usual racing tricks are here – super jumps, turbo blasts, power slides – but the game really soars when the wheeled robots take flight. The two-person mini-games are fun too.
CDS
1959 – Jazz’s Greatest Year
(Columbia/Legacy)
Celebrating the 50th anniversary of some of the best jazz records ever made, these expanded reissues pile on the extras (including outtakes and videos). The two-CD sets include Dave Brubeck’s Time Out (a rare mainstream hit), and a pair of indisputable classics: Miles Davis’ Sketches of Spain and Charles Mingus’ Mingus Ah Um.
CD
Action: The Sweet Anthology
(Shout! Factory)
Everything you’ll ever need by one of the glam era’ biggest groups can be found on this two-disc set. The remastered collection boasts hits like “Ballroom Blitz,” “Fox on the Run” and “Love Is Like Oxygen” in all their fuzzed-out glory. Every song sounds like it was recorded on a pair of mile-high platforms. --Michael Gallucci
On their third album of smartass Britrock, Art Brut riff on things that rock their world, including alcoholism, breakfast cereal, public transportation, and the Replacements. Frontman Eddie Argos still sounds like he’s choking back chuckles underneath his thick accent, but the rest of the band shows off tight new chops, tearing through the brief songs (most clock in at less than three and a half minutes) with previously unheard assurance. Yet Art Brut Vs. Satan sounds a lot like Bang! Bang! Rock ‘N’ Roll and It’s A Bit Complicated. And the 11 songs here pretty much roll into one long wink at hipsters. But even hispters need to laugh once in a while too.--Michael Gallucci
It’s been five years since Eminem’s last album. In hip-hop terms, we might as well be talking about an entire generation. There are certainly parts of Relapse, his fifth CD, where it seems like he was in a coma for the past half-decade. That may not be too far from the truth, since the record’s best cuts are about the rapper’s addiction to prescription pills and the zombie-like climb he took out of hell to get back among the land of the living. The album begins with a 90-second skit in which a rehab doctor advises Em to “take a drink [to] take the edge off.” Much of Relapse is about the artist’s battle to stay sober in a world that likes him best when he’s fucked up. So we have cuts about Eminem walking around in a daze (“3 a.m.”), being abused by his stepfather (“Insane”) and hiding pills around the house (“Déjà Vu”). Dr. Dre’s spare, spooky production provides Relapse with an appropriate air of dread. But almost half of the album falls back on Eminem’s usual shock rhymes: Rape, murder and blaming Mom for his problems all get moments in the spotlight. And the record’s single, “We Made You,” takes swipes at celebs who haven’t mattered since the last time Eminem released an album. His shady past may inform Relapse, but Em sounds most persuasive when he’s hoping for a sober future. --Michael Gallucci
Typically, a band’s move to an indie label after years of laboring on a major means one thing: The big-bucks company dropped the underperforming group. But in the case of Sonic Youth, who pretty much invented indie-rock as we know it more than 20 years ago, it means something totally different. For their 16th album, Sonic Youth head back into indieville for the first time since 1988’s landmark Daydream Nation, and they do so with dignity. In fact, their first-time pairing with indie-label kings Matador seems like one of those matches destined from the start. The hook-up certainly sparks The Eternal, the veteran noise-rockers’ most inspired album in years. Swapping the four-minutes-and-outta-there structure of their past few records for a less-ordered approach, The Eternal’s songs build their way to five-, six- and even nine-minute blasts of choking guitar hugs. But it’s not all epic. The opening “Sacred Trickster” clocks in at an economical 2:11 and doesn’t waste a note. And one of the album’s best cuts, “Poison Arrow,” barely reaches the three-and-a-half-minute mark. Still, The Eternal’s core consists of the long, sprawling cultural observations they’ve dispensed for a quarter century now -- whether they’re dishing on Britney Spears on “Malibu Gas Station” or giving props to some old-school philosophical musings on “Anti-Orgasm.” --Michael Gallucci
Cam’ron has spent most of the three years since his last album beefing with hip-hop heavyweights like Jay-Z, 50 Cent and Jim Jones. That may explain why Crime Pays sounds so dated. Since he’s pretty much excluded from rap’s elite clubhouse these days, maybe he didn’t get the memo that gangsta themes, sex rhymes, painfully unfunny skits and filling nearly every minute of a CD is so 2002. The Harlem rapper still has a commanding flow, but when it’s applied to worn-out cuts like “Who” (all about Cam making money) and “You Know What’s Up” (all about Cam “fucking bitches”), it hardly matters. It doesn’t help that many of the beats are as stale as Cam’s rhymes. There’s one bright spot: “My Job,” a timely discourse on dead-end nine-to-fives. Maybe he owns a calendar after all. --Michael Gallucci
The 17 old-school cartoons on this two-DVD set rank among animation’s all-time greatest. The Man of Steel’s ultra-stylized adventures have influenced generations of animators (Fleischer’s team was also behind the excellent Popeye cartoons in the ’40s). Best of all, these remastered toons have never looked so vibrant.
CD
Eric Church: Carolina
(Capitol Nashville)
This Nashville newcomer hates urban cowboys with big hats and big mouths; he’s all for big hooks and honky-tonk tradition on his second album. Church’s lonesome twang works on both the rockers and ballads. Plus, he co-wrote all 12 songs, which are mostly about raising hell, drinking Jack and Coke, and smoking weed.
DVD
Frost/Nixon
(Universal)
Ron Howard’s faithful adaptation of the stage hit is a showcase for Frank Langella and Michael Sheen, who respectively play the disgraced U.S. president and the British talk-show host who wants to uncover the truth. Extras include deleted scenes, commentary and footage from the Nixon Library. Best of all, there are plenty of clips from the real interviews.
CD/DVD
Jane’s Addiction: A Cabinet of Curiosities
(Rhino)
This three-CD, one-DVD survey of the L.A. band’s leftovers includes plenty of not-so-skeletal demos that reveal just how fully formed most songs were before they were recorded. Cover versions of the Grateful Dead’s “Ripple” and Sly & the Family Stone’s “Don’t Call Me Nigger, Whitey” are also cool. A live show and videos put it all in perspective.
CD
Sinéad O’Connor: I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got
(Capitol/EMI)
Before she became a pope-bashing loony, O’Connor was an adventurous singer-songwriter who managed to reach No. 1 with her second album, now expanded to two discs. The Prince-penned hit “Nothing Compares 2 U” had a lot to do with its success, but the rest of the record – which juggles alt-rock, folk, a cappella and hip-hop – remains one of the ’90s’ best. --Michael Gallucci
Five years after they revived the rock opera, reignited political rock and resurrected their career, Green Day return with another concept album that’s bigger, badder and bolder than American Idiot. Divided into three acts with recurring themes and musical motifs running throughout, 21st Century Breakdown is another indictment of rampant American idealism. But where Idiot took on Bush and his overseas war machine, Breakdown stays on U.S. soil,surveying the state of religion, welfare and various other collapses as the two young lovers at the center of the tale navigate their shaky futures. Billie Joe Armstrong can still be heavy-handed with his symbolism (last time around, his characters were named St. Jimmy and Jesus of Suburbia; this time they’re Christian and Gloria), but21st Century Breakdown contains his best batch of songs since Dookie. They’re certainly more ambitious than the masturbating teens he sang about 15 years ago. “Born into Nixon, I was raised in hell,” he laments on the opening title tune. “My generation is zero.” From there, Christian and Gloria recount their crushed dreams, lack of direction and eventual resignation over blasts of punk rock, sweet pop and sweeping ballads. But there’s promise on the closing “See the Light”: “[It’s] never too late,” sings Armstrong on a ’70s-style rocker that sums up 21st Century Breakdown’s hopeful uncertainty in four-and-a-half tightly packed minutes. In other words, not much has changed in five years.--Michael Gallucci
Jane’s Addiction released only two albums during their short career. There’s a live debut, a rarities set and a reunion album in their discography too, but the Jane’s Addiction that fans remember made only two albums: 1988’s Nothing’s Shocking and 1990’s Ritual de lo Habitual. So you could say A Cabinet of Curiosities – a three-CD, one-DVD survey of the L.A. band’s leftovers from the period – is kinda pointless. And in a way, you’d be kinda right. The entire first disc is made up of not-so-skeletal demos (of faves like “Jane Says,” “Mountain Song,” and “Ocean Size”) that reveal just how fully formed most songs were before the band went into the studio. The second CD includes more demos, a couple live cuts, a remix of “Been Caught Stealing,” and cover versions of the Grateful Dead’s “Ripple” and Sly & the Family Stone’s “Don’t Call Me Nigger, Whitey” (with Ice-T helping out). The last CD features a complete live show recorded in Hollywood in 1990. Frontman Perry Farrell reminds the audience about three dozen times that he’s, like, totally high, and reminds us what an asshole he could be. The rest of the band tears through the set with the scorching precision that made them famous.--Michael Gallucci
The second album by the reunited New York Dolls picks up where One Day It Will Please Us to Remember Even This left off: a little bit south of the blazing trashy glam-punk they helped invent 35 years ago. Unlike 2006’s surprisingly sturdy comeback record, ‘Cause I Sez So deliberately swings old-school, with Todd Rundgren – who produced the band’s 1973 self-titled debut – behind the boards. Plus, there’s a soggy reworking of one the Dolls’ signature songs. It’s all kinda nostalgic for the wrong reasons. If One Day … was a declaration of relevance after three decades MIA, then ‘Cause I Sez So is a glassy-eyed gaze at what made the Dolls so relevant in the first place. Sometimes it works: The title tune is a twin-guitar strut complete with one of those everybody-now! singalongs the band fired up back in the day. And the sugary “Lonely So Long” keenly nods to the band’s girl-group influences. But the self-referential “Nobody Got No Bizness” and the reggaefied take on the debut’s “Trash” sputter out almost immediately. Meanwhile, Rundgren’s production, pretty much nonexistent on the great 1973 record, gives David Johansen’s phlegmy voice more prominence in the mix than it deserves. Tattered, weathered, and still defiant after all these years, it’s an integral part of the New York Dolls’ mythos. But it’s also a reminder that it ain’t 1973 anymore.--Michael Gallucci
By now, John Doe has been knocking around country music longer than he’s been a punk. The X frontman has led the honky-tonkin’ Knitters side project for 25 years, and his rootsy solo records are more twang than oi! So it’s not that big of a surprise that Country Club, his collaboration with the Canadian alt-country group the Sadies, is a straight-up country album filled with mostly old-school covers. And they do a splendid job playing songs made famous by Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, and Hank Williams, with Doe’s worn-in voice sliding comfortably into the band’s spot-on Nashville swing. They’re particularly scorching on “Stop the World and Let Me Off” and “I Still Miss Someone,” where everyone kicks away at these dusty relics, stirring some sparks. But too often Country Club comes off like an exceptional cover band plowing through their fine-tuned set -- the kind of thing you’d hear in any Nashville bar on any given night. These faithful replications have heart, but you’re better off with the originals.--Michael Gallucci
Booker T. Jones, the man behind “Green Onions” and countless other Stax greats, has played the reliable sideman role for so long, it’s kind of a big deal when he’s given a solo shot. Of course, as bandleader of the venerable MGs, Jones has had extensive training in how to shape records. Potato Hole, the first album under his own name in three decades, finds Jones leading another band, this one made up of Neil Young and members of Drive-By Truckers. And while nothing here approaches the magnificence of the MGs’ ’60s output, it’s a sturdy set of rafter-shaking instrumentals. Leadoff track “Pound It Out” begins with Jones’ fat and meaty Hammond B-3 organ oozing into every open space, before a crunching guitar power chord blasts it all wide open. From there, Young and the Truckers’ Patterson Hood swap leads, the band piles on funky Southern R&B, and Jones pulls up the center with the sort of warm and tuneful organ riffs he’s been laying down for almost 50 years. Best of all, Jones and crew spin covers of OutKast’s “Hey Ya!” and the Truckers’ “Space City” into something entirely new. --Michael Gallucci
Mickey Rourke deservedly earned the best reviews of his long and troubled career as Randy “The Ram” Robinson, an ’80s wrestling star now grappling with his estranged daughter, stripper gal pal and aging body. Darren Aronofsky’s excellent film actually works better on the small screen, where guys like Randy became heroes back in the day.
VIDEO
American History X
(Warner)
Edward Norton simmers in this portrait of a reformed skinhead trying to keep his younger brother away from the hate that consumed his own youth. The new Blu-ray includes some deleted scenes, but the hi-def images of violence, as both a learned and unlearned part of one man’s life, truly shock. The movie still resonates 11 years later.
CD
MSTRKRFT – Fist of God
(Downtown)
These Toronto noisemakers shake up the dance-floor on their frenetic second album. The BPMs come at you hard -- almost relentless in their assault. It’s a helluva ride and a helluva party, fueled by sloppy sex, cheap booze and cheaper drugs. Ghostface Killah and John Legend even show up for quickies.
BOOK
101 Albums That Changed Popular Music
(OxfordUniversity)
Writer Chris Smith doesn’t uncover any hidden gems in his scholarly tome about the CDs every music fan should have in his collection. But he does offer some critical perspective on timeless albums like Kind of Blue, Daydream Nation and The Slim Shady LP. There’s even a handy appendix listing the records. It makes a perfect shopping list.
CD
The Best of AR Rahman: Music and Magic From the Composer of Slumdog Millionaire
(Legacy)
Rahman’s beat-heavy songs drove Slumdog Millionaire to a pair of soundtrack Oscars. This 14-track collection gathers a decade’s worth of his tunes, most of which blend pop, hip-hop, electronic and traditional Indian music. It’s a great introduction to one of the most versatile composers in the world. --Michael Gallucci
Bob Dylan has been doing effortless for almost 50 years now. From the very start of his career, when he was channeling Woody Guthrie, to his recent renaissance records about memories and mortality, Dylan sounds like a man who doesn’t have a care in the world. His music – through all the twists and turns and detours and sidetracks they’ve taken over the years – has rarely sounded forced. On Together Through Life, Dylan doesn’t even sound like he’s trying. But not in a bad way. The 10 songs come out so natural, you can imagine Dylan writing, recording and forgetting about them before he even had his morning cup of coffee. Unlike his two other drooled-over albums of the decade – 2001’s Love and Theftand 2007's Modern Times -- Together Through Life doesn’t pitch a tent in America’s past. It’s a roots record (Dylan’s most roots-oriented album in decades, in fact), but one that finds comfort in the present, not in days gone by. There’s still some reminiscing here about old schoolyards and dying breaths, but he’s living for the moment most of the time. Backed by his solid but anonymous touring band and especially Los Lobos’ David Hidalgo on accordion, Dylan breezes past Together Through Life’s best songs (“Beyond Here Lies Nothin’,” “I Feel a Change Comin’ On,” “It’s All Good”)like they’re merely more sights on his lazy stroll to wherever it is he’s going. Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter co-wrote most of the words with Dylan, so the album is stuffed with autumn-hued images that are as tossed-off as the music. But the casualness suits Dylan by now. There’s no pillaging of the American songbook; there’s no minstrel show of hands either. Together Through Life is Dylan being Dylan, taking it easy and not getting worked up over a single thing. --Michael Gallucci
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