Expecting Rain

How do you feel about this album these days? It wasn't perhaps vintage Bob but have people warmed to it? or perhaps any fire you had for the album has diminished over time? Do you think Dylan released it knowing it was a low key set of songs and that explains why the songs have never really featured in the setlists that much or as much as you might expect? And do you think it will be long till Bob follows it up?

I think it's a fantastic album! superbly performed and it has a really great vibe to it. sure it's not love and theft, but what is?
i wish that Bob did play more songs from it live...It's All Good and Shake Shake Mama would be marvelous, I think. I hope we get another album soon, but failing that he could release the complete Blonde on Blonde sessions.

I still like it, it has grown in the sense that connections bewteen certain songs (hard to describe or "proove" so i won't try) have grown more apparant to me, giving the whole album a more unified feel, but essentially it still seems what it seemed at the start: a laid back collection as you say. Dylan's (and Hunter's) wit is well in evidence throughout.

This Dream of You, Life is Hard, Forgetful Heart, Beyond Here Lies Nothin' and If You Ever Go To Houston are class A songs as far as I'm concerned. They may not be Desolation Row but they're more than acceptable, especially for a soundtrack project that apparently morphed during recording into a full blown album.

BD made comments at the time that they wouldn't handle this one live like they did MT, and I've come to wodner if he meant they wouldn't be rolling it out so fast. I wish they would hurry up as I usually like these songs live (I'd like Jolene if it weren't so godawful long in concert).

It's All Good in Chicago 2009 was one of my favorites of that year for the NET. If You Ever Go To Houston usually gets a pretty marvelous treatment as well and Forgetful Heart seems to be considered a highlight of shows by all who hear them.

Would love to hear Shake Shake Mama live!

A minor album but a damn sight better than Modern Times.

I like Modern Times infinitely more than Together, but that said:
Together has a solid, cohesive vibe running through it. Sort of gritty, earthier than the other previous 2 albums. And as someone else interpreted on this forum, it seems to be about a man's life cycle, which makes it a little more intriguing for me.

This album was doomed from the gate as it followed two of the best he's done (Most on here understand about Love and Theft but not yet Modern Times, strangely enough). It is a decent collection of songs, but none of them hit you that hard (compared to, say, Nettie Moore or Sugar Baby), and Bob's hesitancy to involve them in the live set makes his view of them quite clear - The songs of the NET are his mantra; he will include the songs that will help him get by.

I'm really just waiting for the next album at this point. Maybe he is too.

TTL and MT did nothing for me. Both albums were quickly shelved and I have no desire to hear them again. CITH, too.

Listen again. Did you get the vinyl? The mastering on the CD is an outright joke.

i found the exact same with TOOM and LT. the increase in my appreciating for them was the same as it was for MT and TTL. except, heres the kicker - i already FREAKING LOVED THEM so now i just soil myself whenever i hear them

at least the songs on TTL don't go on for 3 years like the ones on Modern Times.

i like about half of modern times. i would like nearly all of it if the songs were each 2-3 minutes shorter.

I think that TTL is a fine album, although it may not quite match the very high standard set by Modern Times, "Love & Theft", or Time Out of Mind, all of which rank among the very finest works of Dylan's career.

I loved Modern Times, then I heard the vinyl and that just blew me away.

I was ambivalent to TTL, then I heard the vinyl and felt a groove. I saw Dylan preform Forgetful Heart and was blown away. That was one of the highlights of the night (along with Ain't Talkin').

I'm growing more accustomed to TTL, I listen to a song here and there (and Forgetful Heart). I do wish for a better CD release, for the life of me I can't figure out why they don't give us a choice on Amazon or Itunes for digital files that have "consistent" volume or "original" volume.

Not sure how this turned into a thread on MT (which is a fine album).

TTL has a clutch of good songs, but several that I skip ('Houston,' 'Hometown,' 'Jolene'). Lazy writing is a blemish on some other tracks. So it has that basic flaw of being an album that you have to 'edit' in the sense of omitting weak tracks and overlooking occasional duff lines on the tracks you do keep. Then again, 'Beyond Here Lies Nothing' is one of his most perfect late-career cuts, for instance; 'This Dream of You' is a hypnotic piece of atmosphere. Not a great record at all, but it does have some mighty fine moments.

It's also the first of the late-career albums where the voice is starting to become a problem. Try as I might, I can't enjoy notes that are 'sung' as pure gargles rather than as notes. What I called in another thread 'atonal expectorations' are starting to show up here. But it's not fatal like it is on CITH.

At first i only loved half of MT and none of TTL except "This Dream of You" and "Lifeis Hard" . Now im crazy for all of MT and love all of TTL. It really is a wholesome piece of work. Lyrics are soild and peacful. and those blues numbers are great. Can't go wrong with an accordian. I think everyone agrees "Forgetful Heart" was the highlight of 2010 tour.

As always: not a masterpiece, but a good album, very enjoyable on its entirety.

I have to agree that, as much as I like some tunes (Nettie Moore) on MT, MOST of them went on way too FREAKING long.

So, in that sense, TTL was an improvement.

These days, I spin TTL more than MT, but I think MT is a better album.

Maybe I am just a psycho?

I like MT far better live, I never listened to the album much. Though his voice is MUCH rougher on TTL I think it's a more enjoyable album to listen to.

I listen to it more now than MT or L&T. There's an immediacy to it all, and an energy that I really like. Probably MT and L&T are technically better. But I listened to L&T too much when it was first released, and MT was only so good for so long. When The Deal Goes Down and Nettie Moore are two of my all time favorites, but MT as a whole is almost too overworked. It's too digital sounding.

Say if Dylan albums were placed into 5 tiers (L&T, HW61 being 1st tier, Down in the Groove being 5th tier), this would be a 3rd tier, possibly 2nd tier album. However, like other albums such as Pat Garrett, it's so damn enjoyable for the most part that it really doesn't matter.

I didn't listen to it for about 4-5 months and I've come to appreciate it more in the past few weeks. If You Ever Go to Houston, which was probably my least favourite previously, is now right up the top for me. A fantastic, epic song and the continuous riff doesn't bother me in the slightest now, in fact it's wonderful.

Forgetful Heart is a totally different beast on the album to what it has become on stage. On the album it is angry, resentful, which is fine. But the live re-working has given it many more levels. Beyond Here Lies Nothin' is a cracker of an opener (something Bob does so well) and possibly my favourite on the album, with some splendid phrases and phrasing (I LOVE the wind/glass line btw). The rockers, Jolene and Shake, Shake Mama do their job well. This Dream of You is easily the best written song on the album and it's a shame Bob hasn't experimented with it live, as I feel it could be up there with Forgetful Heart with a re-working. The only low point for me is It's All Good, which just feels a bit lifeless and stale. For a song so light and satirical, it needs a bit more bite to the performance and I could do without the accordian on it. Live though, it roars.

Overall, a hugely enjoyable album, nothing revelatory, but who the hell cares? Sit back with a 6 pack on a hot summer day and enjoy....all of which I plan to do shortly!

I think Dylans rough vocals goes well with the material and mucis of the album. Never saw any of it as a problem.

I like the Together Through Life album especially Forgetfull heart – shake shake mama and It’s all good .
I hope he will makes more of these kind of records in the Future.

I knew that this thread was going to be "This is really a brilliant album - Bob is so great. If you don't like it you must be a moron". For me it's a below par Dylan album that I rarely listen to

Big of you to admit you "knew" it was going to be one of those "if you disagree with me you're a moron" threads when in fact it wasn't. At least not so far.

I don't believe anyone called it brilliant either, though I haven't gone back to check. Most people seem to be somewhat in agreement that's neither his best nor worst, just a decent Bob Dylan album with some good songs on it.

It really is. This got me listening to it all over again. Something about it has an old fashion warmth to it. It's a simple album but likable. That's that.