He’s having a laugh. Well, more of an evil cackle. It comes at the end of My Wife’s Home Town, a title that perhaps suggests a pretty little ode to small-town America, but turns out to be an ominous loping blues with the refrain: “I just want to say that Hell’s my wife’s home town.” The title of It’s All Good is similarly deceptive (it isn’t good at all), whereas the title of Life Is Hard is a pretty accurate summation of that song’s lyric. So, we might assume that Dylan has a pretty bleak view of existence right now; and I think we’re entitled to do that, because, in a recent interview on his website, Dylan stated bluntly: “I’m not a playwright. The people in my songs are all me.” The upside — for Dylan — is that the people in his songs tend to find love, or believe that the possibility of love is reason enough to put up with the hard times. The upside for us is that his uncompromising world-view comes with his usual wit, well-turned phrases and a well-marshalled and cleverly augmented band. Los Lobos’s David Hidalgo joins on accordion, seamlessly switching styles, whether playing against plaintive steel guitar (on This Dream of You), duelling with spiky rock riffs (on Beyond Here Lies Nothing) or subtly calling to mind Dylan’s trademark harmonica style (on Feel a Change Coming On). More accessible than Modern Times, Together Through Life is a welcome addition to the late-period Dylan catalogue.

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