NEW YORK (Top40 Charts/ Columbia Records) - Bob Dylan's new album, Together Through Life, has entered both the U.S. and UK album charts at No 1, marking the artist's second consecutive U.S. No 1 debut and his first chart-topping release in the UK since New Morning in 1970. Together Through Life is a true international hit, as well, achieving No 1 debuts in Austria and Denmark, Top 5 entries in Australia, Germany, Ireland, Holland, Norway, Switzerland, Sweden and New Zealand, and Top 10 rankings in Italy, France and Belgium.
"Beyond Here Lies Nothin'," the first track on Together Through Life, is serving as the soundtrack for a series of on-air and online promotional spots for the highly anticipated second season of True Blood, the smash hit HBO vampire series. The eagerly awaited second season of True Blood launches on HBO on Sunday, June 14.
The True Blood promos debuted on HBO on Saturday, May 2, and are airing in heavy rotation on HBO and HBO's multiplex channels. The True Blood/"Beyond Here Lies Nothin'" promos premiered online on both HBO.com and BobDylan.com May 4. The promotional spots can be viewed by clicking on the following link: www.hbo.com/trueblood/video.html
"When I heard the song, I knew it would be a perfect fit for our characters and storylines," said True Blood creator Alan Ball.
A short film for "Beyond Here Lies Nothin'" has been lensed by AFI and Sundance Film Festival award winning director Nash Edgerton, and will be seen on the IFC Channel and on IFC.com, beginning Tuesday, May 12.
Released on Tuesday, April 28, Bob Dylan's Together Through Life is the artist's first full-length studio album since 2006's platinum-certified Modern Times, which also debuted at No 1 on the Billboard Top 200. Produced by Jack Frost, Together Through Life, was recorded late last year, prompted by the composition of a new song, "Life Is Hard," which was written for a forthcoming film by French director Oliver Dahan (La Vie En Rose).
Together Through Life is already receiving worldwide raves:
"Critics Choice! A vibrant new album."
People Magazine
* * * (out of four) "Dylan's 33rd solo album lives up to the artistic standards established by a trilogy of career-recharging gems that started with 1997's Time Out Of Mind. But he deviates from their apocalyptic burdens to spin yarns, wry and real of ordinary folks in the grip of lust, longing and heartache,"
Edna Gundersen - USA Today
"Latter period Dylan is turning out to be some of his deepest, richest work. Together Through Life is another brilliant, sure-handed outing by one of the few certified greats still living up to his legend."
Joel Selvin - San Francisco Chronicle
* * * (out of four) "His greatest achievement on this, his 33rd studio album, is his ability to shut out the expectations of a world that in recent years has sent his stock skyrocketing, and to assemble his warmest, most unforced, set of songs in recent memory."
Pete Paphides - London Times
"Dylan has found his 21st century feet in musical touchstones almost 100 years old. And yet, through his growling, puckish delivery and crack band, it comes across fresh and vibrant. Here's to Dylan finding more of his future in the sounds of the past."
Jed Gottleib - Boston Herald
* * * (out of four) Together Through Life is an album that gets its hooks in early and refuses to let go. It's dark yet comforting, with a big tough sound, booming slightly like a band grooving at a soundcheck in an empty theatre. And at its heart there is a haunting refrain. Because above everything this is a record about love, its absence and its remembrance.
Danny Eccleston - Mojo
"Another genius Dylan disc....Together Through Life continues Dylan's Indian summer string of masterpieces, and it's a cut above 2006's Modern Times."
Brad Bamberger in the Newark Star-Ledger
"As crafty and moving as anything in Dylan's catalog"
Corey duBrowa - Paste Magazine
"Together Through Life is the perfect soundtrack for down-but-not-out America, a clear-eyed, often elegant-sounding, road map that notes the struggles, but keeps its focus on making it through - with your sense of humor intact, no less."
Glen Gamboa - Newsday
