Rebel, Sweetheart is a beautifully crafted piece of art. Each of the 12 songs are engaging, thought-provoking, melodic, and textured. Producer Brendan O'Brien (Pearl Jam, Bruce Springsteen) brings his signature techniques to the album, layering the songs with various guitars, keys, vocals in interesting combinations, giving the songs depth--each time you listen, you hear something new. Jakob Dylan's has hit his stride with these songs, creating songs full of poetic lines, powerful metaphors and vivid imagery. The themes reflect the title of the album: a tension between fighting who & where you are vs. finding contentment in being that person in that place. This tension might relate the human or national condition. Dylan paints a lot of situations where a fight is warranted. In "Here He Comes (Confessions of a Drunken Marionette)" an exploited puppet realizes there might be a way out, "They sing Auld Lang Syne/I've got mutiny on my mind." A song with a unique and catchy sound, "I Am A Building," portrays a character who is defeated, closed, & abandoned. But then sees things differently: "Things are looking clear now/My eyes are wide enough to see the way a sniper does." Or, in "Back to California," there's a promise of hope by returning to the way things were. Finally, in "From The Bottom of My Heart," a beautiful ballad with minimal instrumentation accompanying Dylan's honest vocals, we learn the lesson of the perseverance of "an army of one/Marching back up the steps/Into the rays of the sun." There are many ways to rebel.

Maybe rebelling isn't always the answer, sometimes it's best to accept. A stand out track, "We're Already There," is just one song that explores this side of acceptance. The most emotive song on the album, "God Says Nothing Back" rings of despair with the realization that neither God, time, love, nor death say anything back. The lesson is in the title of the song "How Far You've Come," with a message about altering our perspective instead of the world around us. "Nearly Beloved," a contradictory song in its upbeat tempo yet with lyrics depicting sad realization & acceptance suggests, "if we could do better I know that we would/Maybe admit it now/we're not that good."

The title, the songs, the lyrics, and the melodies reflect the tensions and contradictions we deal with every day. While some may fight everything and err on the side of being always the rebel, others may resign themselves to accepting "whatever comes my way," this compilation of songs reminds us that it's more complex than that. Instead, there's a delicate and beautiful balance between resistance and acceptance. The beauty is in finding happiness in both roles ... perhaps when one both resists and accepts, they also find "The Beautiful Side of Somewhere." When a bunch of rock'n'roll songs, with catchy lines and foot-tapping melodies can teach us life lessons that profound, that is good music. The Wallflowers' Rebel, Sweetheart is superb music.