Bob Dylan – Fallen Angels (2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24-bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 37:55 minutes | 366 MB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download – Source: PonoMusic | Front Cover | © Columbia Records
Recorded: February 2015-March 2016, Capitol Studios, Los Angeles, US
Fallen Angels is the thirty-seventh studio album by Bob Dylan, released by Columbia Records on May 20, 2016.
The album features covers of twelve classic American songs chosen by Dylan from a diverse array of writers such as Johnny Mercer, Harold Arlen, Sammy Cahn and Carolyn Leigh. Much like the album’s predecessor, Shadows in the Night, every song on the album, except for “Skylark”, was once recorded by Frank Sinatra.
The album has received generally favorable reviews from critics, with particular praise for Dylan’s vocal performance, production quality, and the arrangements of his band.
Fallen Angels may have been recorded at the same session as 2015’s moody Shadows in the Night, but its tone is very different. Call Fallen Angels the Nice ‘n’ Easy to the No One Cares of Shadows in the Night: they’re both tributes to Frank Sinatra, but the 2016 album is light at heart. It’s filled with songs of love, not heartbreak, and Dylan’s band plays the numbers as sweet shuffles that function as a counterpart to the gloomy saloon tunes that filled Shadows in the Night. Another distinction of Fallen Angels is that, unlike its cousin, some of the featured songs are quite common: “Young at Heart,” “All the Way,” “It Had to Be You,” and “Come Rain or Come Shine” often pop up on Great American Songbook tributes, whereas the compositions on Shadows often felt carefully curated. Such familiar tunes — which are offset by such nifty excavations as “Maybe You’ll Be There,” “On a Little Street in Singapore,” and “Skylark,” the only song here not recorded by Sinatra — help draw attention to Dylan’s interpretations. Supported by his trusted touring band, he pushes these songs into the realm of a dusty roadhouse, letting “That Old Black Magic” skip along to a swift danceable beat, turning “Polka Dots and Moonbeams” into a country ramble, playing “Melancholy Mood” as an after-hours blues. These wise, wily interpretations underscore Dylan’s ultimate aim with these Sinatra records, which is to slyly tie together various strands of American music, bringing Tin Pan Alley to the barrooms and taking the backwoods uptown. The results are understated yet extraordinary, an idiosyncratic, romantic vision of 20th century America. ~~ AllMusic Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Tracklist:
1 Young At Heart 03:00
2 Maybe You’ll Be There 02:56
3 Polka Dots And Moonbeams 03:36
4 All The Way 04:02
5 Skylark 02:56
6 Nevertheless 03:27
7 All or Nothing at All 03:04
8 On a Little Street in Singapore 02:16
9 It Had to be You 04:02
10 Melancholy Mood 02:53
11 That Old Black Magic 03:03
12 Come Rain or Come Shine 02:39
Personnel:
Bob Dylan – vocals
Charlie Sexton – guitar
Stu Kimball – guitar
Dean Parks – guitar
Donnie Herron – steel guitar, viola
Tony Garnier – bass
George Recile – drums
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