Bob Dylan’s 35th studio album, but a first for the 73-year-old icon, is a dreamscape of classic covers, from Oscar Hammerstein to Irving Berlin

Trying to offer critical assessment of any Bob Dylan album is like penning a critique of Mount Rushmore. So iconic and rarified is the reputation stratosphere the 73-year-old inhabits that trying to freeze a moment in time in review seems almost sacreligious. That said, Dylan’s last album, 2012’s Tempest, marked a welcome turning point from what can be gently phrased as an semi-incoherent series of albums in the early and mid-2000s–ones that emphasized often incomprehensible lyrics and genre shifts that seemed to make little sense (the album Together Through Life being a particularly noteworthy example). Tempest was unquestionably Dylan’s darkest album, too, even if one had to occasionally dig beneath the bouncy, walking-pace and breezy melodies to uncover the often desperate lyrics beneath. It was a terrific disc, but a meal that bordered on the uncomfortably heavy.

In short, this year marked the perfect time for a departure into something entirely new–an interregnum in which to take a breath, and it’s cheering to report that is exactly what happened. In a first of its kind in Dylan’s career, the February-launch Shadows in the Night consists entirely of covers. A hint of the stripped-down and earnest style of the disc came late last year when Dylan released a version of “Full Moon and Empty Arms,” most famously recorded by Frank Sinatra. With a dirgy Texas guitar twang and almost whispering voice, the track is lovely, and manages to offer a new perspective on a song that, as all listeners know, has been unpacked dozens of times. The fascinating reexaminations continue with Oscar Hammerstein’s “Some Enchanted Evening,” Irving Berlin’s “What’ll I Do,” and Jacques Prévert’s “Autumn Leaves,” among other classics. Mostly respectfully quiet, the tracks together constitute something like a dreamscape, and are gratifyingly uncomplicated in their structure, with Dylan’s gravelly low tenor center stage, in all its perfect imperfection.

“I’ve wanted to do something like this for a long time but was never brave enough to approach 30-piece complicated arrangements and refine them down for a 5-piece band,” Dylan explained. “That’s the key to all these performances. It was all done live. Maybe one or two takes. No overdubbing. No vocal booths. No headphones. No separate tracking, and, for the most part, mixed as it was recorded. I don’t see myself as covering these songs in any way. They’ve been covered enough…buried as a matter of fact. What me and my band are basically doing is uncovering them…lifting them out of the grave and bringing them into the light of day.”

Shadows in the Night will be released on February third.