Bob Dylan's Fallen Angels Receives Critical Raves

NEW YORK, May 23, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Bob Dylan's new album, Fallen Angels, is available now in CD, vinyl and digital formats.  Showcasing the artist's singular interpretive artistry on twelve classic American songs, Fallen Angels is the 37^th studio album from Dylan and the first since last year's Shadows In The Night.  Produced by Jack Frost, Dylan's unique approach to recording the songs included refining complicated arrangements for 30-piece orchestras down to those uniquely tailored for his five-piece band.  The album can be found at Amazon, iTunes and at all music retail outlets and major streaming services.

Critical response to Fallen Angels has been enthusiastic, with rave reviews coming in from around the globe:

• Randy Lewis wrote in The Los Angeles Times, "[Dylan] immediately liberates songs from the big band/big orchestra world from which they emerged, and in which they are most frequently revisited…. [He] reaches to the blues at the core of many of these songs. Thus, they elicit the ache of romantic yearning and loss that often gets subsumed by swelling orchestral forces, background choirs or by singers who are more focused on crafting elegant vocals than finding emotional resonance."

• Entertainment Weekly's Jim Farber opined, "Dylan alights on these words with a wry delicacy…Tellingly, he delivers these songs of love lost and cherished not with a burning passion but with the wistfulness of experience. They're memory songs now, intoned with a present sense of commitment….Standards likes these and Dylan's own songs now stand as equal American totems."

• In her 5-star review of the album, The Telegraph's Helen Brown wrote, "Like Sinatra — Dylan's always had a knockout knack for putting a lyric across. Whether whispering into your ear in the jingle jangle morning (he wrote most of his own songs at dawn) or snarling at you from the street corner, he made every word matter….Now he inhabits classic lines by songwriters like Johnny Mercer with weathered ease….These recordings have the relaxed intimacy of a band alone, playing on long after the engineer has set the levels."

• Rolling Stone's Will Hermes wrote of Dylan's singing on the album, "His phrasing remains spectacular, sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes hilarious" and of the musicianship, "the playing is sublime."

• In another 5-star review, NOW's Vish Khanna wrote, "Dylan highlights the art of crooning, commanding the prettiest version of his multi-faceted, distinctive voice. This album is not a trifle; in some instances, these might well be newly definitive recordings of the songs. Fallen Angels is a hazy, laid-back history lesson with as many enigmatic twists and turns as a classic double-cross caper. It subverts archetypes of romance, heroism and interpersonal connection to reveal something more sinister about human intent, all packaged in beautiful musicianship of the highest order."

Bob Dylan's six previous studio albums have been universally hailed as among the best of his storied career, achieving new levels of commercial success and critical acclaim for the artist. The Platinum-selling Time Out Of Mind from 1997 earned multiple Grammy Awards, including Album Of The Year, while "Love and Theft" continued Dylan's Platinum streak and earned several Grammy nominations and a statue for Best Contemporary Folk album.

Modern Times, released in 2006, became one of the artist's most popular albums, selling more than 2.5 million copies worldwide and earning Dylan two more Grammys. Together Through Life became the artist's first album to debut at #1 in both the U.S. and the UK, as well as in five other countries, on its way to surpassing sales of one million copies.  Tempest received unanimous worldwide critical acclaim upon release and reached the Top 5 in 14 countries, while the artist's globe-spanning concert tours of the past few years have heavily emphasized that album's singular repertoire. 

Shadows In The Night, on which Dylan paid tribute to Frank Sinatra with distinctive interpretations of ten songs previously recorded by Sinatra, debuted in the Top Ten in 14 countries.  The album entered the charts at #1 in the United Kingdom, Sweden and Ireland, #2 in Denmark, the Netherlands and Switzerland, #3 in Austria, Japan and Spain, #6 in Germany and Belgium, #8 in Finland and #10 in Canada.  The album also debuted at #6 in the United States, making it the artist's 17th studio album to debut in the Top 10 in this country. 

These six releases fell within a 19-year creative span that also included the recording of an Oscar- and Golden Globe-winning composition, "Things Have Changed," from the film Wonder Boys, in 2001; a worldwide best-selling memoir, Chronicles Vol. 1, which spent 19 weeks on the New York Times Best Seller List, in 2004, and a Martin Scorsese-directed documentary, No Direction Home, in 2005. Bob Dylan also released his first collection of holiday standards, Christmas In The Heart, in 2009, with all of the artist's royalties from that album being donated to hunger charities around the world.

In recent years, Bob Dylan was the recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States' highest civilian honor. He was awarded a special Pulitzer Prize in 2008 for "his profound impact on popular music and American culture, marked by lyrical compositions of extraordinary poetic power." He was also the recipient of the Officier de la Legion d'honneur in 2013, Sweden's Polar Music Award in 2000, Doctorates from the University of St. Andrews and Princeton University, as well as numerous other honors. 

Bob Dylan has sold more than 125 million records around the world.

Fallen Angels
The Critics Have Listened

Dylan, who also produced under his pseudonym Jack Frost, immediately liberates songs from the big band/big orchestra world from which they emerged, and in which they are most frequently revisited…. Dylan reaches to the blues at the core of many of these songs. Thus, they elicit the ache of romantic yearning and loss that often gets subsumed by swelling orchestral forces, background choirs or by singers who are more focused on crafting elegant vocals than finding emotional resonance.
Los Angeles Times – Randy Lewis

"[Dylan's] phrasing remains spectacular, sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes hilarious, and the playing is sublime."
Rolling Stone – Will Hermes

Bob Dylan is a great singer….  His skill has always been in connection, in expression, in using his voice to capture the essence of the song he is singing.  And with Fallen Angels…Dylan shows how his connection to these songs and to his fans has only grown stronger….Fallen Angels is so well-crafted, the impressive work of a great singer.
Newsday – Glenn Gamboa

Dylan alights on these words with a wry delicacy…Tellingly, he delivers these songs of love lost and cherished not with a burning passion but with the wistfulness of experience. They're memory songs now, intoned with a present sense of commitment….Standards likes these and Dylan¹s own songs now stand as equal American totems.
Entertainment Weekly – Jim Farber

Like Sinatra — Dylan's always had a knockout knack for putting a lyric across. Whether whispering into your ear in the jingle jangle morning (he wrote most of his own songs at dawn) or snarling at you from the street corner, he made every word matter….Now he inhabits classic lines by songwriters like Johnny Mercer with weathered ease….These recordings have the relaxed intimacy of a band alone, playing on long after the engineer has set the levels. 
The Telegraph - Helen Brown

Dylan digs back into the treasure trove that is the American songbook. The focus here is generally on breezier fare….There is a loose, playful quality to much of the singing here, and to the tracks, which Dylan produced under his nom de studio, Jack Frost. ….This is what a seasoned performer can do with words and music, whether his own or someone else's. Dylan deserves thanks for reminding us of that, again.
USA Today – Elysa Gardner

Dylan highlights the art of crooning, commanding the prettiest version of his multi-faceted, distinctive voice. This album is not a trifle; in some instances, these might well be newly definitive recordings of the songs. Fallen Angels is a hazy, laid-back history lesson with as many enigmatic twists and turns as a classic double-cross caper. It subverts archetypes of romance, heroism and interpersonal connection to reveal something more sinister about human intent, all packaged in beautiful musicianship of the highest order. 
NOW – Vish Khanna

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160523/370793

SOURCE Columbia Records