Shadows In The Night

This is a seriously good album, possibly the best album of Dylan covering other artists/songwriter's material. The fact is that, while he is the quintessential singer/songwriter, Dylan has been known to interpret, and, cover songs. This is something he's been doing since 1961, what with his first album, and House of The Rising Sun, Fixin' to Die, In My Time of Dyin', etc. He has returned to other people's songs on several occasions, i.e Self Portrait, Dylan, Knocked Out Loaded, Down In The Groove, Good As I Been to You, World Gone Wrong. The recent two Bootleg Series, i.e Another Self Portrait, and Complete Basement Tapes, have revealed an artist fully au fait with country, rock, blues, and folk, and also managed to integrate them with his own compositions. This album, however, has had its precedents, stretching as far back as covers of Blue Moon on Self Portrait, Can't Help Falling In Love on Dylan, and When Did You Leave Heaven on Down In The Groove. Even Dylan's own material has, from a long time ago, showed a sense of the American songbook, i..e If Dogs Run Free on New Morning, Simple Twist of Fate on Blood On The Tracks, I Believe In You on Slow Train Coming, Sweetheart Like You on Infidels, I'll Remember You on Empire Burlesque, Under Your Spell from Knocked Out Loaded, Shooting Star from Oh Mercy, Born In Time, To Make You Feel My Love, Bye and Bye, Spirit On The Water, Life Is Hard, etc. Jazz artists have covered Dylan, too, i.e. Ben Sidran on Dylan Differently, Diana Krall with Simple Twist of Fate, amongst others. Dylan has also crossed paths with Jerry Garcia, who wasn't adverse to covering Berlin's Russian Lullaby, Willie Nelson who has recently also covered What'll I Do on his December Day album, Johnny Cash, who almost at journey's end, covered That Lucky Old Sun on American III: Solitary Man. However, the key issues are: can Dylan make an album of standards, and can he sing them ? The wonder of Dylan, from 1961 onwards, was, and is, that he's the world's greatest non-voice. He set the bar for songwriters like Lou Reed, Tom Waits, John Prine, and now he sets the bar on a standards album, which is far better than the recent efforts by Robbie Williams, Paul McCartney, and, above all, Rod Stewart. Most critics have, almost on auto-pilot, awarded Dylan 5 stars for his albums from Time Out of Mind onwards. This, however, is different: this is Dylan singing I'm A Fool to Want You with as much resonance as Billie Holiday on Lady In Satin, and with, dare I say it, as much panache. It also highlights an artist covering Some Enchanted Evening with aplomb, and doing far better than a disco-fied version by Ray Charles. Likewise, Dylan isn't doing the most obvious Frank Sinatra numbers - there's no That's Life, My Way, Strangers In The Night, or a duet of Something Stupid with Joan Baez. This is a stroll down the azure-tinged American songbook, the reverse-side to World Gone Wrong, or Good As I Been to You, yet, also, cut from the same cloth: Lonnie Johnson's Tomorrow Night could have been cut by Sinatra, but it wasn't. Tunes like Autumn Leaves, familiar by Nat King Cole, certainly have that bluesy tinge, that even another longtime Colombia artist gave a blue vibe to, i.e. Miles Davis in his Live at Tokyo album from 1964. Bearing in mind Dylan's love of the blues, it is no great surprise that he's found the blues in the American songbook. When you throw in Where Are You, and the yearning of Stay With Me, you find that Sinatra was also routed in the blues, albeit a more urbane sound. Sinatra listened to the bluesier jazz artists, i.e Billie Holiday and Bessie Smith, and his phrasing derived from Billie Holiday. However, there's one small caveat: the good reviews that this album has garnered may encourage Dylan to record another series of covers, but then Leonard Cohen has even covered the songbook, i.e Always.

Dylan is a man of many moods. If you are looking for Dylan the folk singer, Dylan the prophet, Dylan the protestor, or the electric Dylan of Highway 61 revisited, you may not find this album to your taste. Instead, we are transported to the fifties, Frank Sinatra and the pensive small hours of the morning. Dylan is soulful and languid, singing standards from another era, songs of autumn, songs of night. The music is melodic, slow and recessed; the mood is reflective, the voice is tour-weary but tuneful (for Dylan) and articulate; Dylan has taken a lot of care with this album, nothing is thrown away, nothing breaks the mood, and the lyrics are full of meaning; even though others wrote them down, he makes them his own. These are the songs of a man who has been everywhere, done everything, and has nothing left to prove. It feels like he is singing for himself and allowing us the privilege of listening in. Sometimes he is confessional; “I know I have sinned, I go seeking shelter and I cry in the wind,” he sings in Stay with Me; and “Show me that river, take me across and wash all my troubles away” in a magnificent performance of Lucky old Sun at the close. These are songs of yearning; “if my one wish comes true, my empty arms will be filled with you” he croons in Full Moon and Empty Arms. As a Dylan fan of many years, and one lucky enough to have seen him perform on many occasions, I love the album. It is different but not different; as ever, he follows his artistic instinct, never mind what others think. “Let people wonder, let ‘em laugh, let ‘em frown …. don’t you remember I was always your clown, why try to change me now?” he sings. Thank you Bob for giving us an enchanted evening.

It seems a very unlikely idea, particularly to those of us more-or-less of Dylan's generation. The thought of him singing standards from The American Songbook seems to go against a lifetime of being iconoclastic, teaching us to question accepted attitudes. (Even Dylan's most overtly Christian songs were rarely "comfortable".) And surely these songs need, smooth, sophisticated singing whereas Dylan has never had a voice suited to melifluous MOR numbers and is now more rasping and "unmusical" than ever... And yet that is, paradoxically, why this album is so successful. The voice makes you listen to the lyrics; there's characteristic irony there but also a sense that these words are genuinely felt, lived through, not just thrown off on the back of a pretty but bland voice. (Of course, some of the best interpretations of these songs come from jazz musicians, both singers and instrumentalists, who are prepared to interpret, not just deliver them.) Listen to "Autumn Leaves", for example: it's a long time since I realised just how ambivalent this song is, with its bitter lyrics set against such a memorable tune and harmonies. The album is rather like Rod Stewart's similar ones; it takes a musician who has lived through a lot to capture the essence of these great but hackneyed songs. My only complaint (hence only 4 stars) is that at 35 minutes it's very short for a modern album. Still, that's not too bad for a £6.49 download of this quality.

Es Dylan cantando canciones de Sinatra ¿Qué mas puedes pedir?, entrega rapidísima, estaba preocupado de que me llegara roto el vinyl, pero les digo que llegan en perfecto estado, súper bien empaquetado (no les quito la sorpresa); Algo que falto decir en la descripción del producto, es que es una edición de 180 gramos, por lo que los audiófilos les encantara, además incluye su versión en CD, por el precio es una buena oportunidad ya que obtienes el vinyl y el cd.

Very Good Bob! This is a very different album for Bob Dylan, it is covers of some very good old songs. Very well recorded and the sound quality is excellent very basic and he does not try to do it with big band sound, he is not that kind of a singer. Take the album for what it is. It is a relaxing album perfect for these winter months. Bob's voice is so good on this album, come on people quit criticizing him, he is 73 years old now and still putting out albums! He is a legend and when has he ever done anything predictable. I like all the songs but especially "some Enchanted Evening" "what'll I do" and that "that Lucky Old Sun" Thank you Bob!

ディランの36thアルバムは、かつて音楽業界と映画業界(と政界と裏社会)に君臨した合衆国黄金期の象徴的人物にして、ディランが最も敬愛するシンガーの一人、フランク・シナトラが歌ったトラディショナルポップのスタンダート・ナンバーばかりを演奏したもの。 単なるカバー・アルバムではなく、むしろこれまで多くの人々にカバーされすぎて埋もれてしまった曲の真の魅力を「アンカバー」しようとしたのだとか。 レコーディングはシナトラが愛用したハリウッドのCapitol Studios。選曲も実に渋く、比較的無名な曲が中心。”My Way”、”Fly Me To The Moon”、”New York, New York”、”Come Fly With Me”、”Stranger In The Night”、”Moonlight Serenade”などの名だたる代表曲はあえて外されている。いたるところにディランの深いこだわりが伺えます。 メイン・メンバーは、“Love And Theft”で名演を見せたチャーリー・セクストン(G)、古参のトニー・ガルニエ(B)、”Modern Times”にも参加していたジョージ・レチェリ(Per)、ドニー・ヘロン(Pedal steel guitar)、”Tempest”でアルバムに初起用されたスチュアート・キンボール(G)、そしてディラン(Vo)の5人で、そのほか曲によってブラスが入ったり。 現在のライブ・バンドとまんま同じメンツだったのでてっきりディランらしいフォーク、ルーツ・ロック系のアルバムになるのかと思いきや、意外にも原曲を尊重したバラード路線。 バックの演奏が静かなだけに、ディランのハスキーでいて深みのあるボーカルと、オールドアメリカンな哀愁漂う歌詞がやたら心に響く。 ひねったアレンジは終始全くと言って良いほど無く、人によっては盛り上がりが少ないとも感じるでしょう。しかしアルバムの最初から最後まで徹底してバラードを貫き続ける堂々とした作りは、"Only The Lonely"や"September of My Years"を連想させます。 特にシナトラが作曲した初期の代表曲#1”I'm A Fool To Want You”と、本作最大の目玉である#4"Autumn Leaves"は素晴らしかったです。(シナトラが"Autumn Leaves"を歌っていたとは知らなかったので驚きました。) ディランは今作の発売にあたって受けたAARPとのインタビューの中で「若者は情熱的でいられるが、老いた者はもっと賢くならなきゃいけない。」「若者みたいな振る舞いはするな。本当に自分を傷つけることになる。」と言っていましたが、この熟練しきったスタイルこそが今のDylanだということでしょうか。 かなりの異色作ではありますが、個人的には21世紀のディラン作品中では"Love And Theft"に次いで好きなアルバムです。

Niente sovraincisioni, niente cabina voce, niente cuffie, niente tracce separate: un disco alla vecchia maniera e oggi come allora un disco incredibile. Certo sembra impossibile, ma è tutto vero... solo come un disco di Dylan può essere. ;) Edizione e imballo ok.

Une fois de plus Dylan va là où personne ne l'attendait même si pour les aficionados des signes précurseurs existaient.Encore faut-il les décrypter. Ces derniers albums sont une synthése parfaite de toute la musique qu'il a digéré depuis des décennies. Et son émission de radio Theme Time Radio Hour faisait la part belle à toutes sortes de titres des années 40, 50. Sa connaissance de la musique américaine est inimaginable. Avec ce nouveau disque Dylan se fait plaisir en s'envoyant une petite partie du "Great American Songbook" . Shadows In The Night, c'est tout simplement une tranche de l'histoire de la musique populaire des Etats Unis. Les américains ont Irving Berlin, Rogers & Hammerstein, Jérôme Kern etc, nous avons Charles Dumont, Charles Aznavour - que Dylan adore - Joseph Kosma . La suite, vite