RECORD REVIEWS

Bob Dylan

Album: “Triplicate”

Grade: 3 stars (out of 4)

The idea of Bob Dylan becoming the keeper of Frank Sinatra’s flame would have seemed preposterous 50 years ago. Dylan was revolutionizing songwriting in a torrent of words back then, instantly making the classics sung by Sinatra another generation’s music. Parents’ music.

Yet after two releases delving into the songs primarily from the first half of the last century, Dylan doesn’t just double down on the strategy. “Triplicate” is, as the name implies, a three-disc thematic set of similar material. Virtually all of the songs were once covered by Sinatra.

It seems like an odd direction for America’s greatest living songwriter, fresh off a Nobel Prize. Dylan hasn’t released a disc of self-penned material since 2012, and it’s worth wondering if the well has run dry. Maybe the inscrutable Dylan just likes singing these songs and wants to keep them alive.

Singing is the last thing you’d expect to hear discussed on a Dylan disc, yet his voice is surprisingly supple, even lovely. He reaches for, and finds, notes that you wouldn’t think possible. The songs are recorded in a hushed, intimate setting with spare backing from his longtime band, many resting on a bed of steel guitar. They deserve to be heard in a cabaret setting.

These are songs of missed opportunities and lost love that feel right coming from a 75-year-old man. “We were young and didn’t have a care,” he sings in “Once Upon a Time.” “Where did it go?”

As well performed as the material is, the slower tempos allow a sense of sameness to creep in. “Triplicate” is more of a historical document than a contemporary recording, and absent a curiosity about songwriting of this era, some tedium is inevitable.

— David Bauder, Associated Press

Paul Shaffer & The World’s Most Dangerous Band

Album: “Paul Shaffer & The World’s Most Dangerous Band”

Grade: 3 stars (out of 4)

Paul Shaffer, David Letterman’s longtime nutty bandleader, recaptures some of the old TV magic on his new album with The World’s Most Dangerous Band and help from Bill Murray, Shaggy, Jenny Lewis and Dion. Displaying the same versatility and chops which served them so well for so long in late night, tunes by Vince Guaraldi, Lloyd Price and even a Bob Dylan instrumental are given stylish makeovers.

Shaggy puts his reggaefied vocals on Guaraldi’s Grammy-winning “Cast Your Fate to the Wind” jazz standard, while Dion tackles Sam Cooke’s “Win Your Love for Me.” Lewis helps on “Sorrow,” a tribute to David Bowie, and Valerie Simpson is in the pocket for a song she co-wrote for Ray Charles, “I Don’t Need No Doctor.”

Murray assists on “Happy Street,” akin to the theme song from a slightly spaced-out PBS children’s show, while a soulful Leo Napier owns Curtis Mayfield’s “Rhythm.”

Shaffer even ventures into lead vocals – not his strongest talent, to put it kindly – giving “Yeh Yeh” a modern twist with lyrics like, “Turn the phone off so we can Netflix and chill.”

Dylan’s “Wigwam,” one of his least typical singles, sums up the Shaffer trademarks – anything goes but excellence prevails, respect for the singers and the songs and an occasional surprise proving why he’s been at the top of his profession for decades.

— Pablo Gorondi, Associated Press