Jakob Dylan

  But darkness still lurks, and the album's ghost could very well be that of Springsteen's own Tom Joad. Harkening a grizzled Tommy Lee Jones, in his don't-tell-me quest of In the Valley of Elah, there is a from-the-headlines murkiness that occasionally makes Dylan’s metaphors and humor a difficult listen. But while Neil Young has proven how CNN-fueled songwriting can be irksome, Dylan handles the likes of "Evil is Alive and Well" and "War is Kind" with a tangential nature, leaving it at an of-the-moment edge instead of slipping into liberal posturing.

  As modern music's most fortunate (the genes!) and least fortunate (the shadow!) heir, Jakob Dylan deserves a break, as it’s inevitable that audiences will always expect more. While there will never be another Blood on the Tracks, Seeing Things is a step in the right direction and an effort that stands firmly on its own.