Singer Bob Dylan to release album of classic ‘uncovers’
Singer and songwriter Bob Dylan is to cover (or uncover as he puts it) works by the likes of Frank Sinatra. It will be Bob Dylan’s first album of new recordings since The Tempest in 2012. Bob Dylan is taking on tracks originally recorded by the likes of Frank Sinatra for his new album Shadows in the Night, he has announced. His 36th studio album, out on 2 February, will feature 10 “uncovers”.
“I don’t see myself as covering these songs in any way,” said Dylan.”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.” I’m A Fool To Want You, The Night We Called It A Day and Irving Berlin’s What’ll I Do, all recorded by Sinatra, are among the songs being reworked by Dylan and his band.
Other highlights on the album produced by Jack Frost include Nat King Cole’s Autumn Leaves and Some Enchanted Evening from Rodgers and Hammerstein musical South Pacific. ‘A privilege’Dylan – who has sold more than 125 million records around the world and won multiple Grammys – called it “a real privilege” to make the 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 five-piece band,” he said. The album features old standards and hits stripped back by Dylan and his 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.”
Columbia Records chairman Rob Stringer said Dylan had infused “new life and contemporary relevance into the songs”. “There are no strings, obvious horns, background vocals or other such devices often found on albums that feature standard ballads,” added Stringer. The album is the first new music from Dylan since 2012’s critically acclaimed Tempest.
His last five albums, including 2006’s Modern Times, have achieved new levels of commercial success for his work. Together Through Life became Dylan’s first album to debut at number one in both the US and the UK in 2009.