New in 2017

Dylan must have gone to the mind garden one too many times.

I am a huge Dylan fan, but let's be honest-- if the albums of standards he has recently released were put out by any other human alive--that human would be laughed out of the room. He sings off key so much, its laughable. The albums are only "interesting" because Its Bob Dylan. As much as I care for Bob and his most recent albums of original songs which remain strong, I refuse to rummage through his garbage.

I have to agree with gpgr4blu's assessment of Bob Dylan's standards releases.  No one else could get away with such.  While I respect his desire to honor this song canon that he loves, the results are kind of cringe-inducing...leastways are for me.  Witness that performance on the last Letterman show.  Dylan's voice always has been something of an acquired taste.  Even more so in later years.  While the "been-garglin' with-razor-blades" sound works just fine for me on his own compositions (e.g., Cold Irons Bound) or on folk standards as on Good As I Been To You and World Gone Wrong, it doesn't seem well suited to material I'm more used to hearing from crooners.  But then again, what do I know.  He's Bob Dylan.  

I never bothered to give Bob's Sinatra-themed album a listen---it just didn't interest me. I also feel ambivalent about the American Standards album. It appears that when his writing-mojo fails him, he records the songs of others, to keep the cash coming in. He did the same back in the early 90's with his Good As I Been to You and World Gone Wrong albums. I saw him live during that period, and he was awful. I didn't see him again for ten years, but that time it was a very different story. Fantastic!