Shadow Kingdom

Product Information

A Rolling Stone review by Michaelangelo Matos named Shadow Kingdom one of the "Hear This" recommended albums for the month of June 2023, claiming that Dylan makes his classic songs "seem stunningly brand new". The album charted in at least 19 countries and reached the top 10 in Austria, Belgium, Finland, Germany, Scotland and Switzerland. Shadow Kingdom showcases Bob Dylan in an intimate setting as he performs songs from his extensive body of work, created especially for this event. Although no musicians are listed in the credits, various sources have identified the session players as consisting of veterans such as T Bone Burnett and Don Was.

The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. I don't quite know what this album is about other than it was some project that Dylan worked on last year, and I don't know what the musical interlude between each song is about. A livestream designed to be ephemeral, to disappear like the smoke from all those cigarettes after a couple of days.

This means that the sound is close to Tex-Mex with its use of acoustic guitars and an accordion to add colour it is a very gentle sound and Dylan's voice is relaxing presence. Shadow Kingdom presents Dylan performing revelatory 21st century versions of songs from his storied back catalogue – including fan favourites like “Forever Young” and “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue,” and deep catalogue gems like “Queen Jane Approximately” and “Wicked Messenger. Hackett’s right leg had to be amputated after Eddie Nace, the Bon Bon Club operator, pushed her down the staircase.

A review by Scott Bauer of the Associated Press praised the arrangements, noting how the "heavy dose of accordion and no drums" make the songs "sound fresh again". Shadow Kingdom the album, then, turns out to be an extremely useful addition to the Dylan catalogue, and very much of a piece with his current manoeuvres.Bauer also claimed that the album "stands as a good retort for all the naysayers who have argued, seemingly from day one, that Dylan can't sing. Originally reinterpreted for an exclusive streaming film event, which aired in July 2021, Shadow Kingdom is now available on vinyl and CD for the first time.