Bob Dylan - Together Through Life [2LP]

Bob Dylan's Together Through Life swaps the grand statement for a dusty border-town party, and this 150-gram double vinyl gives its accordion-laced grooves plenty of room.

Released in 2009, the record began almost by accident. French director Olivier Dahan asked Dylan for a song for his road movie My Own Love Song, the answer was Life Is Hard, and an album grew from there. Dylan wrote nearly every track with Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter and produced it himself under his long-running alias Jack Frost, cutting it in Santa Monica with a small band.

That band is the secret weapon. David Hidalgo of Los Lobos pumps accordion through almost every song, while Mike Campbell of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers adds stinging guitar and mandolin. Beyond Here Lies Nothin' opens on a low, smoky shuffle, Forgetful Heart sinks into a sparse and haunted ache, and It's All Good closes with a shrug of gallows humour.

The songs feel like late-night talk between old friends who have seen a few things, with Dylan's weathered voice sounding wry and tender in the same breath. It topped the charts in both the US and the UK on release.

Of his late-career roots records, this is the most good-natured and danceable, a Tex-Mex roadhouse set that rewards every side.