Triplicate (2017)
Disc One
1. I Guess I'll Have to Change My Plans
2. September of My Years
3. I Could Have Told You
4. Once Upon A Time
5. Stormy Weather
6. This Nearly Was Mine
7. That Old Feeling
8. It Gets Lonely Early
9. My One and Only Love
10.Trade Winds
Disc Two
11.Braggin'
12.As Time Goes By
13.Imagination
14.How Deep is the Ocean
15.P.S. I Love You
16.The Best is Yet to Come
17.Beautiful
18.Here's That Rainy Day
19.Where is the One
20.There's a Flaw in my Flue
Disc Three
21.Day In, Day Out
22.I Couldn't Sleep a Wink Last Night
23.Sentimental Journey
24.Somewhere Along the Way
25.When the World Was Young
26.These Foolish Things
27.You Go to My Head
28.Stardust
29.It's Funny to Everyone But Me
30.Why Was I Born
With Triplicate, Bob Dylan concludes what now reads as a trilogy of American standards albums—following Shadows in the Night and Fallen Angels—by delivering not merely a continuation, but a full-fledged immersion into the Great American Songbook. Clocking in at three discs, this project is his most expansive exploration yet of pre-rock pop balladry, and a testament to his enduring fascination with the art of interpretation.
The repertoire is drawn from well-trodden classics—melancholy ballads and torch songs most famously rendered by Sinatra and his contemporaries. What distinguishes Triplicate, however, is not the selection itself, but Dylan’s characteristically idiosyncratic treatment of it. These are songs performed not with vocal precision, but with emotional candour. His now-weathered voice—ragged, unvarnished, yet strangely suited to the material—imbues the proceedings with a bruised intimacy. Dylan does not sing these songs so much as inhabit them.
Arrangements are sparse and unpretentious. The band, as in the previous two albums, provides subdued, tasteful accompaniment: brushed drums, languid pedal steel, and the occasional brushed piano phrase. The effect is one of deliberate understatement, allowing the emotional heft of the lyrics to rise unobstructed.
Yet for all its sincerity and polish, Triplicate is a demanding listen. Three discs of slow-tempo laments and twilight reflections is an ambitious offering, and one that may test the endurance of all but the most devoted listeners. The emotional palette is narrow—heartache, longing, regret—and the tonal uniformity risks monotony. As with its predecessors, the album is more evocative mood piece than dynamic musical statement.
One senses that Dylan’s engagement with this material is deeply personal. That he has now dedicated three consecutive releases to this idiom suggests not a mere stylistic detour, but a sustained artistic inquiry. And while the genre may not sit comfortably with segments of his traditional audience, it seems clear that Dylan is less concerned now with audience expectations than with artistic exploration.
In the grand arc of Dylan’s career, Triplicate stands as an unexpected but sincere monument—an act of reverence toward a bygone era, delivered in the cracked but compelling voice of a man still determined to surprise.
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