There has been a bit of a trend wherein rock musicians tackle the musical era that came before pop music. Usually what you wind up with are imitations of old standards, sometimes nicely done, often not so much. So when word came down the pike that none other than Bob Dylan would be releasing a covers album, featuring songs recorded by Frank Sinatra, concerns were voiced. But, as usual, you can't discount the ability of Dylan to surprise. And surprise he does, taking ten songs, all recorded at some point, by Old Blue Eyes, recording them at Capitol Records-Sinatra's recording shrine, and he turns out a unique, bluesy collection of songs and makes them live and breathe in new ways.
Shadows in the Night is revelatory--Rolling Stone's David Fricke, had this to say about the singing on this album,
"The great shock here, then, is Dylan's singing. Dylan's focus and his diction, after years of drowning in sandpaper, evoke his late-Sixties poise and clarity on John Wesley Harding and Nashville Skyline — also records of deceptive restraint and retrospect — with an eccentric rhythmic patience in the way he holds words and notes across the faint suggestions of tempo. It is not crooning. It is suspense: Dylan, at 73, keeping fate at arm's length as he looks for new lessons, nuance and solace in well-told tales."
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