If, so far, all you’ve really been able to muster about Jakob Dylan – both solo and coaxing The Wallflowers out – is an agreement that he’s “pleasant”, you’re not alone. With his second solo album, however, Dylan Jr’s proven himself a pleasingly comfortable Americana assimilator of his own – just one working with more modern touchstones for his generation. Depending on how you feel about these sorts of things, to hear that Jakob’s channelling his inner Tom Waits through most of Women & Country – an album inventively cataloguing some of the various what-you-can-dos for both – will either excite or bore you.
Let’s say you’re in the former camp. From the clangy New Orleans stomp of Lend A Hand, to They’ve Trapped Us Boys’ hip-hop- referencing refrain, “Hollaback now, make some noise,” Dylan’s working with all the ragged grace of a modern field recording, à la Waits’ Mule Variations. It’s scratchy and witty, while Smile When You Call Me That offers everything you could want in the line of crotchety we-love- each-other-really songs.
