Having seen Bob Dylan play live a few years ago, I’m pretty sure he is not the first person I would choose to cover three albums’ worth of American jazz-age standards. The sound which came out of his mouth on that occasion resembled that of a demented, elderly dog. ‘Just Like A Woman’ had a chorus which went: ‘Grassum, grassum — rassum rassum rassum’, a neat twist on the original lyrics. It was joltingly inhuman. However, he has been on the Benylin, I think, because his voice here is not quite so gratingly hilarious. Now he sounds like a pissed-up and very persistent old gadgie at a karaoke machine in the shabbiest bar in Hibbing, Minnesota, as he growls through the likes of ‘Sentimental Journey’, ‘As Time Goes By’ and — the best by some margin — ‘I Could Have Told You’.
The songs are taken slowly, very slowly, and the musical accompaniment is exquisitely tasteful — all shabby-chic muted horns and pristine Farrow-&-Ball cocktail jazz guitar.
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