Deep Covers

First the good news... a new and triple album from Bob Dylan. Then what seemed like not such good news... it's all covers. Again. 'Shadows In The Night' and 'Fallen Angels' were both brilliant records. But with Mount Sinatra climbed, the expectation was that, as after those other writer's block classics 'Good As I Been To You' and 'World Gone Wrong', Dylan would get back to Dylan.

However, after a listen to 'I Could Have Told You' from the new album, with its exquisite musical backing from Dylan's road band and a vocal that no one else could come close to for feeling and meaning, you realise that he had to do this...

Voice Of A Fallen Angel

The late-night drive back to London from playing a gig in Brighton was the perfect opportunity to listen to Bob Dylan's latest album, 'Fallen Angels'.

What a wonderful piece of work and – like everything he's done – it's something that no one else could pull off. For an ageing troubadour to take these ancient songs and make them fresh and full of timeless meaning is more than a small miracle.

This is part two of 'Shadows In The Night', pretty much just as 'World Gone Wrong' was part two of 'Good As I Been To You' – another couple of albums when he took a kind of sabbatical (enforced possibly by writer's block) and turned a whole load of old songs into, in effect, new Dylan songs.

Great as Bob's singing is on 'Fallen Angels', what really stands out on this album is how damn good his band are on every track. And, as ever, the appetite is whetted for what comes next – whatever that may be.

Oh Yes! It's Another Bob Dylan Book

John Bauldie and Patrick Humphries once wrote a book called 'Oh No! Not Another Bob Dylan Book'. It's one of the few Bob Dylan books I haven't read.

Among the best are 'Dylan's Visions Of Sin' by Christopher Ricks... and, of course, 'Chronicles Volume One' by, er, Bob Dylan. (What about Volume Two? Is it rolling, Bob?)

But I must now also recommend 'Dylan Disc By Disc' by Jon Bream, which does exactly what it says on the cover. It's a fresh critical analysis of every studio album the man has done, from 'Bob Dylan' to 'Shadows In The Night'. But, typically, it is about to become out of date because Dylan is releasing 'Fallen Angels' later this month.

'Disc By Disc' features not only informed and intelligent discussions about every one of the albums from assorted line-ups of critics, but it also features great pictures of the man in his many incarnations.

It really is essential reading.