Tuesday marked the release of Bob Dylan's 33rd go-around, and his autonomy as an artist has never been more apparent. A month shy of 68, he shifted into full-throttle blues mode with his latest solid record, Together Through Life.

The surprise album, which was announced shortly after Dylan came off his two-year world tour, was triggered by a request from French director Olivier Dahan for the musician to record a song ("Life is Hard") for the film, My Own Love Song. Dylan was not solo in this effort, having co-written nine tracks with Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter.

On Together Through Life, Dylan takes a step back from modern times and makes a completely anachronistic record. In 10 revamped classic blues songs with a tinge of Cajun flavor, he pays homage to his pre-folk influences.

With each day, Dylan's wounded singing is coming to match that of veteran lounge lizard Tom Waits' voice of gravel, even if the lyrical motifs aren't quite as seedy. The brusque rasp suits the soulful B.B. King-like croons.

Blues has always been an integral part of Dylan's extensive catalogue, but Together Through Life is devoted to it. Tell Tale Signs: The Bootleg Series Vol. 8, which was released last October, was equally demarcated by the rough blues sound.

Containing an instrumental inventory of accordions and violins, the album avoids anything remotely flashy. Instead, it remains modest and marginally sentimental.

It's not going to unite everybody like Modern Times did, which sold more than four million copies worldwide.

However, both albums are cohesive in their own way -- Modern Times was topical and introspective, whereas with Together Through Life, it proves closer to Dylan on vacation -- packed in old-school brevity and low-key fun.

At times, Hunter and Dylan get playful with the lyrics. On "My Wife's Home Town," Dylan snarls, "I just wanna say that Hell's my wife's home town." He can be heard laughing at the end, an element which possibly hasn't been recorded since the boisterous guffaw kicking off "Bob Dylan's 115th Dream" on 1965's Bringing It All Back Home.

"I Feel a Change Comin' On," titled like a Sam Cooke song, is where Bob gets feisty. "You are as whorish as ever, baby, you could start a fire," Dylan sings.

"It's All Good," the album closer, is the bitter, political track. He sings about the world's misery one by one in his vintage vignette narrative style, further punctuating his own helplessness.

"There's a cold blooded killer stalking the town/Cop cars blinkin', something bad going down/Buildings are crumbling in the neighborhood/But it's nothing to worry about, 'cause it's all good." The only solution, Dylan reasons, is to be complacent about the fact that there is none. Ending each stanza with the title instills stubborn cynicism.

Together Through Life, collectively a minor work, could have most fittingly been recorded in 1955 by Muddy Waters. But the gifts of one of the world's best songwriters and folk troubadours, and the eloquent ease with which he expresses them, bear no time stamp.

Download: "Life is Hard"

Grade: B+