In his typically cryptic fashion, Bob Dylan has announced the release of a new album. Sort of.
With no mention on his official website or social networking feeds, and with no press release issued by his long-standing record label Columbia, the iconic songwriter included a flyer promoting "Shadows In The Night" in advance copies of his archival "The Basement Tapes Complete" set. You can see the flyer here:
Rolling Stone noted that news of the album first emerged in May when the singer released online his version of Frank Sinatra's song "Full Moon and Empty Arms." The album will consist entirely of cover songs, Rolling Stone says, but no official statement from Dylan's team confirms that.
"Shadows In The Night" will be the 36th studio album for Dylan, 73, and his first since 2012's "Tempest." While Dylan is known as arguably the most influential songwriter in modern history, he is no stranger to covering other writers' material. If Rolling Stone's report that "Shadows In The Night" is a collection of covers holds true, it will be Dylan's second such album; he released covers album "World Gone Wrong" in 1993.
"The Basement Tapes Complete," available Nov. 4, is, according to Dylan's site, "the definitive chronicle" of his storied recording sessions with The Band at "Big Pink," a house in Woodstock, N.Y. Many of the songs initially appeared on coveted bootleg recordings until "The Basement Tapes" saw an official release in 1975.
In other Dylan news, "The Lyrics: Since 1962," a book made up of the entirety of his lyrical output, was published this week. The volume clocks in at 1,000 pages and 13 pounds and "is roughly the size of an LP record," according to the performer's site. The book sells for $200, unless you want to shell out $5,000 for a copy autographed by the man himself.
"It's the biggest, most expensive book we've ever published, as far as I know," Simon & Schuster President and Publisher Jonathan Karp told the New York Times.
You can hear Dylan's take on Sinatra's "Full Moon and Empty Arms" here:
