Dylan channels Sinatra on Triplicate

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Bob Dylan Triplicate Columbia

The idea of Bob Dylan becoming the keeper of Frank Sinatra’s flame would have seemed preposterous 50 years ago. Dylan was revolutionizing songwriting in a torrent of words, instantly making the classics sung by Sinatra another generation’s music. Parents’ music.

Yet after two releases delving into the songs primarily from the first half of the last century, Dylan doesn’t just double down on the strategy. Triplicate is a three-disc thematic set of similar material. All of the songs were once covered by Sinatra.

It seems like an odd direction for Dylan, fresh off a Nobel Prize. He hasn’t released a disc of self-penned material since 2012, and it’s worth wondering if the well has run dry.

Dylan’s voice is surprisingly supple, even lovely. The songs are recorded in a hushed, intimate setting with spare backing from his longtime band, many resting on a bed of steel guitar.

These are songs of missed opportunities and lost love that feel right coming from a 75-year-old man. “We were young and didn’t have a care,” he sings in “Once Upon a Time.” “Where did it go?”

As well performed as the material is, the slower tempos allow a sense of sameness to creep in. Triplicate is more of a historical document than a contemporary recording, and absent a curiosity about songwriting of this era, some tedium is inevitable.

Hot tracks: “Stormy Weather,” “September of My Years,” “Once Upon a Time” — DAVID BAUDER,

The Associated Press

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Real Estate In Mind Domino

Time seems suspended in Real Estate’s shimmery, languid songs. The band specializes in lazy and lovely guitar interplay inspired, primarily, by the pastoral songs of the Feelies. Their fourth album, In Mind, introduces some slight variations: New guitarist Julian Lynch and keyboardist Matt Kallman add some distorted edges to the usually pristine arrangements.

Most of the album is comfortably familiar, full of Martin Courtney’s crystalline guitar arpeggios and musings on the transience of relationships and the passage of time, songs filled with starry nights and morning sunlight. There’s little tension here. Even when bassist Alex Bleeker sings, “It’s a time to raise our voices loud and not go quietly,” he does so with easygoing complacency.

Hot tracks: the jam band feel of “Serve the Song,” the brooding “Darling,” the momentous “Same Sun” — STEVE KLINGE,

The Philadelphia Inquirer