Hopes are sky high for the new Bob Dylan album, the two songs I’ve heard are both terrific and when you get to the Bobby quote below off his website, you’ll note his claim that the Frank Sinatra songs he’s chosen for his new album have been covered to death though I don’t see any “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” Great American Songbook stuff here. Also, note what was on Dylan’s mind here, re-arranging for a rock band format.
What Zim doesn’t mention here is, based on “Stay With Me” and “Full Moon And Empty Arms” his singing has never been much better than this, I dunno, maybe since the born again trilogy. The fear is we now we won’t get any new material till 2016, which makes four years between albums, and he ain’t getting any younger now is he?
This is what Bob said about Shadows Of The Night: “It was a real privilege to make this album. I’ve wanted to do something like this for a long time but was never brave enough to approach 30-piece complicated arrangements and refine them down for a 5-piece band. That’s the key to all these performances. We knew these songs extremely well. It was all done live. Maybe one or two takes. No overdubbing. No vocal booths. No headphones. No separate tracking, and, for the most part, mixed as it was recorded. I don’t see myself as covering these songs in any way. They’ve been covered enough. Buried, as a matter a fact. What me and my band are basically doing is uncovering them. Lifting them out of the grave and bringing them into the light of day.”
Here’s the tracklist:
I’m A Fool To Want You
The Night We Called It A Day
Stay With Me
Autumn Leaves
Why Try to Change Me Now
Some Enchanted Evening
Full Moon And Empty Arms
Where Are You?
What’ll I Do
That Lucky Old Sun