Bob Dylan has gone through many phases in his 50-odd-year career. Apparently now, on the eve of his second consecutive Frank Sinatra covers album, weâre fully in Sinatra phase.
At the beginning of March, Dylan announced Fallen Angels, his first album since his 2015 Sinatra covers record, Shadows in the Night. When I heard the news, I speculated that it would be his first original album since Tempest arrived in 2012. Apparently I was wrong.
Earlier this month, Dylan released the first track from Fallen Angels, a 1939 Sinatra track titled âMelancholy Mood.â Heâs since released the upcoming LPâs track list (see below), which includes 12 songs from the Sinatra songbook and exactly zero originals. Today, he debuted another, a ballad titled âAll the Wayâ that Sinatra recorded for the 1957 musical The Joker Is Wildâas Stereogum reports.
The singer-songwriterâs voice, gnarled by 74 years of life, has become a fitting vehicle for Olâ Blue Eyesâ croon. âWhen somebody love you / Itâs no good unless he loves you / All the way,â he sings intimately.
Dylanâs rendition is tender, jazzy, and filled with pedal steel. Yet again, he’s done Sinatra justice. Fallen Angels arrives on May 20 via Columbia, and on June 4 Dylan embarks on a U.S. tour with one-time girlfriend, Mavis Staples.
Check out the track and let us know what you think of it in the comments.
Fallen Angels Tracklist:
- Young at Heart
- Maybe Youâll Be There
- Polka Dots And Moonbeams
- All the Way
- Skylark
- Nevertheless
- All or Nothing at All
- On a Little Street In Singapore
- It Had to Be You
- Melancholy Mood
- That Old Black Magic
- Come Rain or Come Shine
IMAGE: Xavier Badosa