Shadows in the Night

Composition and recording

Shadows in the Night consists of ten ballads that were recorded by Frank Sinatra in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The songs were selected from that period of Sinatra's career when he was recording thematic albums that explored emotions of separation and heartache—albums such as Where Are You? (1957), which includes four of the songs on Shadows, No One Cares (1959), and All Alone (1962). Most of the songs are Tin Pan Alley standards, delivered in a slow to mid-tempo pace, that "often luxuriate in melancholy" and communicate a sense of loneliness. The arrangements center on Dylan's vocals supported throughout by Donny Herron's gliding pedal-steel guitar and Tony Garnier's bass.

Shadows in the Night was recorded in 2014 at Capitol Studios in studio B, where Frank Sinatra often recorded his albums. According to the album's recording engineer, Al Schmitt, the songs on Shadows were recorded live with Dylan singing and his five-man touring band performing the songs in the same room at the same time without headphones. Dylan did not want to see any microphones other than the one he was using for his vocals, so Schmitt had to set up the rest of the microphones away from the instruments. The acoustic bass microphone was eight feet from the bass, and set down and away so it couldn't be seen; the same approach was taken for the acoustic guitar. For the electric guitar and pedal steel, Schmitt placed the microphones close to the amplifiers, which were set off to the side.

According to Schmitt, recording sessions typically were held from 3:00 pm to 6:00 pm, and then after a two-hour break, an evening session was held from 8:00 pm to around 10:30 pm. They worked Monday through Friday with weekends off. Dylan prepared each session by listening to the Sinatra recordings, according to Schmitt, who noted:

He would listen to the songs over and over and get Sinatra's intention on what he was doing with the song. Then he would only do two or three takes on each tune, but he would make it his own. It had nothing to do with Sinatra. He'd just learn what the song was about and whatever. It was an interesting way to work.

A total of 23 songs were recorded, from which ten were chosen for the album.

Artwork

The cover art for Shadows in the Night presents images and a design that evoke the early 1960s. The front cover incorporates a photo of Dylan in a thoughtful pose in formal attire, presented in shadow behind a vertical-bar design that emulates the cover of jazz trumpeter Freddie Hubbard's 1962 album Hub-Tones. The back cover photo shows Dylan and a masked woman, both in formal wear, sitting at a small nightclub table looking at a seven-inch Sun Records single. Their appearance may allude to the 1966 Black and White Ball, a masked ball attended by Frank Sinatra and his wife Mia Farrow, both of whom wore masks at the event. As with many of Dylan albums of the past fifteen years, the packaging features minimal credits and no printed lyrics.

Release and promotion

Shadows in the Night was released by Columbia Records on February 3, 2015. Just prior to its release, a Dylan publicist announced that 50,000 free copies of the CD would be given away to randomly selected readers of AARP The Magazine, a bi-monthly periodical that focuses on issues related to aging. Dylan's representatives also reached out to Robert Love, editor in chief of the magazine, requesting an interview. In the interview, Dylan said he wanted to make this album ever since hearing Willie Nelson's standards album Stardust in the 1970s. Dylan also spoke about his admiration for Frank Sinatra:

When you start doing these songs, Frank's got to be on your mind. Because he is the mountain. That’s the mountain you have to climb, even if you only get part of the way there. And it’s hard to find a song he did not do ... People talk about Frank all the time. He had this ability to get inside of the song in a sort of a conversational way. Frank sang to you—not at you. I never wanted to be a singer that sings at somebody. I’ve always wanted to sing to somebody. ... Certainly nobody worshipped Sinatra in the '60s like they did in the '40s. But he never went away—all those other things that we thought were here to stay, they did go away. But he never did.

Dylan's intention, however, was not to record a mere collection of cover songs or a Sinatra tribute. In a statement he explained, "I don't see myself as covering these songs in any way. 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."

Critical reception

Shadows in the Night received critical acclaim from music critics, upon its release. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from critics, the album received an average score of 82, which indicates "universal acclaim", based on 31 reviews. AllMusic critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote: "The fact that the feel is so richly idiosyncratic is a testament to just how well he knows these tunes, and these slow, winding arrangements are why Shadows in the Night feels unexpectedly resonant: it's a testament to how deeply Dylan sees himself in these old songs."

Kenneth Partridge, in Billboard magazine, gave the album four out of five stars, noting that Dylan was "singing like a guy who has seen it all and found truth in timeless poetry that belongs to everyone". Partridge also observed, "Dylan has always loved American mythology and all things archaic, and his best songs on recent albums have been rooted in pre-rock pop. When he gets wistful on "The Night We Called It a Day" or grabs hold of moonbeams on the South Pacific favorite "Some Enchanted Evening", he's natural and sincere." Alexis Petridis of The Guardian praised the album, stating that "it may be the most straightforwardly enjoyable album Dylan's made since Time Out of Mind". Jesse Cataldo of Slant Magazine thought that the album "deepens the innate sorrow of these old tunes by establishing them on a long, irregular continuum, possessing the same inherent mutability as the folk songs of Dylan's early days".

Writing for The A.V. Club, Corbin Reiff summed up the unexpected album by writing, "You can chalk it up as another instance of one of the most capricious artists in pop music history doing what he felt like. Take it or leave it." Paste magazine critic Douglas Heselgrave stated that "Every performance on Shadows in the Night expresses a level of vocal maturity and intuition that he's never quite reached before." David Fricke of Rolling Stone magazine described the album as "quietly provocative and compelling", observing that "Dylan transforms everything on Shadows in the Night into a barely-there noir of bowed bass and throaty shivers of electric guitar". Jon Pareles of The New York Times gave the album a positive review, writing: "Mr. Dylan presents yet another changed voice: not the wrathful scrape of his recent albums, but a subdued, sustained tone." Parales further stated: "Even when it falters, Shadows in the Night maintains its singular mood: lovesick, haunted, suspended between an inconsolable present and all the regrets of the past.

In his review for The Telegraph, Neil McCormick gave the album five out of five stars, describing the work as "quite gorgeous" and "spooky, bittersweet, mesmerisingly moving" with "the best singing from Dylan in 25 years". McCormick also praised Dylan's "delicate, tender and precise" singing that somehow "focuses the songs, compelling listeners to address their interior world in a way glissando prettiness might disguise".

Commercial performance

The album debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart, selling 22,031 in its first week. At the age of 73, Bob Dylan was the oldest male solo artist to chart at number one in the UK, until the record was beaten by Paul Simon in 2016 for Stranger to Stranger. Dylan also holds the record for the longest span between number-one albums with 51 years, having first topped the chart with The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan in 1963.

In the US, the album debuted at No. 7 on Billboard 200, and No. 1 on Billboard's Top Rock Albums chart, selling 50,000 copies in its first week. As of April 2016, the album has sold 151,000 copies in the US.

Personnel