IN AN unusually candid interview, Bob Dylan once revealed: “I’m not a playwright. The people in my songs are all me.”

So the real fascination when a new Dylan album arrives is which ‘me’ turns up. Is it the impassioned folk-singer of his first two records, the spaced-out poetic wizard of Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde On Blonde or the angry, broken-hearted lover of Blood On The Tracks? Or is it the Christian, the country troubadour or the mysterious outlaw?

In Shadows In The Night, his compelling new album of Great American Songbook covers, it is none of these. Here, Dylan is primarily paying a heart-felt tribute to ten classic love songs, made famous by Frank Sinatra and friends, before he himself tore up the traditional Songbook with coruscating epics such as Like A Rolling Stone and Positively 4th Street. He is also, I suspect, trying to prove a point to those critics who believe his voice is shot. On this evidence, it is not.

Indeed, Dylan hasn’t been on better vocal form since the 1997 epic Time Out Of Mind. Gentle, wistful, romantic and melancholy by turns, his knowing, world-weary voice captures the spirit of love in all its myriad forms. The outstanding Stay With Me, a thinly disguised love letter to God, sets the tone, while Some Enchanted Evening (from South Pacific) effortlessly recalls the thrill of a new love affair.

The Night We Called It A Day, meanwhile, lugubriously examines the other side of the romantic coin, as a relationship grinds to an untimely halt. The stunning I’m A Fool To Want You, forever associated with Sinatra’s affair with Ava Gardner, maintains the gold standard as Dylan rakes over the dying embers of illicit love.

The pace of Shadows In The Night is thoughtful and stately, with a mournful bass and haunting pedal steel guitar to the fore.

Paying homage to these classic songs, which place love at the centre of a complex, challenging yet beautiful world, Bob Dylan has created a special album that is a significant addition to his peerless musical catalogue.