Album Review: The Wallflowers - Glad All Over

Coming just a few months after his dad's latest offering, the most famous Bob-spring has made another deposit in one of the most hallowed family back catalogues in popular music. While he may not be the major contributor to this discography Jakob Dylan has always dealt well in a sleek line of Americana and Glad All Over, The Wallflowers' sixth studio album (believe it or not, they formed in 1989) is no exception.

Opening on a swampy note with Hospital For Sinners, Dylan's imitable baritone and anthemic turn of phrase is immediately on show here. Soap-boxing on “statues, apostles and other godly things” suits him well, and as the track builds to a climax you get the feeling that he's just a tad pissed about the tattered current state of the red, white and blue. In that sense, America's collection of misfits and lovers have always been Dylan's focus – never more so than on… uh, Misfits And Lovers, a track featuring one of two cameos from Mick Jones. Jones doesn't really have to stretch himself too far here, especially on Reboot The Mission, which sounds so much like Sandinista!-era Clash that, without Dylan's aforementioned baritone, you'd be excused for mistaking it a B-side.

Credit where credit's due though, and the fact that Joe Strummer himself is name-checked on the track (as “the mighty Joe Strummer”) makes it pretty clear that The Wallflowers are more than comfortable paying homage to their predecessors – a gutsy move considering the frontman's roots. It's unfair to keep painting Dylan with this brush though, and Glad All Over is as solid a display of disaffected American songwriting as you'll hear all year.