Bob Dylan this week announced his 36th studio album. The album, titled Shadows In The Night, will be released on February 3, 2015.
Shadows In The Night is Dylan’s first new album since 2012’s Tempest. The new album does not contain original Dylan music and is instead made up of standards famously sung by Frank Sinatra.
In contrast to the bombastic arrangements backing Sinatra’s vocals, Dylan’s versions of the songs were recorded in just a few takes and were produced using minimal remixing. Columbia Records Chairman Rob Stringer commented that the album has “no strings, obvious horns, background vocals, or other such devices” and that he believes Dylan has provided the songs with “contemporary relevance.”
Bob Dylan's new studio album, Shadows In The Night, will be released Feb 3, 2015. Read more at http://t.co/PxkVli5aYa pic.twitter.com/YxPUqlSBmd
— bobdylan.com (@bobdylan) December 9, 2014
“It was a real privilege to make this album,” said Dylan. “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. 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.”
Dylan also revealed that he doesn’t consider Shadows In The Night to simply be an album full of covers. Instead, he believes he is “uncovering” songs that have been covered to death.
“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.”
Shadows In The Night is already available for pre-order via iTunes. Those who pre-order the album will be able to download “Full Moon & Empty Arms” (the seventh track on the album) immediately.
