Triplicate is the 38th studio album by Bob Dylan, released by Columbia Records on March 31, 2017. Like Dylan's previous two studio albums, Triplicate features covers of classic American songs recorded live with his touring band and without the use of overdubs. The album is Dylan's first three-disc album, featuring thirty songs across its three discs, each individually titled and presented in a thematically-arranged 10-song sequence. Three songs from the album—"I Could Have Told You", "My One and Only Love", and "Stardust"—were released as digital singles, with only the first being made available in promotional CD format. All three were accompanied by videos of the songs being played on a vinyl record player. As with his previous two albums of American pop standards, Triplicate received widespread critical acclaim. It was nominated at the 60th Annual Grammy Awards in the category of Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album. Despite the favorable reviews, it peaked at number 37 on the Billboard 200 and number 17 on the UK Albums Chart.
Background
Following Shadows in the Night in 2015 and Fallen Angels in 2016, Triplicate was his third in three years to consist entirely of "standards" from the Great American Songbook. According to Dylan, the first two albums "only were part of the picture", and he felt it necessary to explore this music in further detail. Although the songs could have fit on two CDs, Dylan wanted each disc to be only 32 minutes long as he believed some of his previous albums had been "overloaded", resulting in a "thin" audio quality when pressed on vinyl records. The three discs were thematically divided, with "one disc foreshadowing the next". The songs were recorded in Capitol Studios in Los Angeles with Dylan's touring band, without the use of overdubs. According to Dylan, the songs were performed "tightly" according to written arrangements, and there was virtually no improvisation during the recording sessions.
Release and promotion
The album was preceded by the release of three singles—"I Could Have Told You" on January 30, 2017, "My One and Only Love" on February 17, and "Stardust" on March 10. While "I Could Have Told You" was also released on promotional CD, the other singles were released only digitally. All three were featured in videos posted to YouTube of the tracks being played on a vinyl record player, complete with surface noise. The album was released on March 31 in CD, vinyl, deluxe vinyl, and digital formats. The deluxe vinyl is individually numbered and comes in a hardbound case with swing pockets.
Commercial performance
Triplicate peaked at number 37 on the Billboard 200, charting for only two weeks before falling off. It also reached number 17 on the UKAlbums Chart, spending two weeks on the chart.
Critical reception
As with his previous two albums of American standards, Triplicate received critical acclaim upon release. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from critics, the album received an average score of 80, which indicates "generally favorable reviews", based on 21 professional reviews. At AnyDecentMusic?, that collates critical reviews from more than 50 media sources, the album scored 7.6 points out of 10. In a review for The Guardian, critic Jon Dennis called Dylan "a prism through which American music is revealed in new and fascinating ways", and that "Dylan is unintimidated by their pedigree" of the chosen material. Mikal Gilmore of Rolling Stone said that Dylan was able to "wield phrasing as effectively as Sinatra himself." Jeremy Winograd of Slant Magazine said that Dylan had "breathed new life into these songs, unearthing, or at least rediscovering, an emotional gravitas within them." Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic said that the collection "cements his place as one of the most distinctive interpreters of the Great American Songbook." A few critics gave more lukewarm appraisals of the album. Mike Powell of Pitchfork said that "the ballads, beautiful as they are, sometimes feel static, bereft of that innerverse opened by singers like Johnny Hartman or, say, Willie Nelson, whose own standards album Stardust remains a high point for projects like this." In a review entitled "Bob Dylan should stop crooning and get back to writing songs", Neil McCormick of The Telegraph wrote that "Triplicate is an act of self-indulgence only of interest to completists", and that while "you may find yourself drawn into Dylan's peculiar rhythm, surrendering to the delicate mood, and really hearing these gorgeous old songs anew". that "we might be intrigued to read Picasso's poetry or hear Pinter's songbook but no one needs five volumes of it. Now it is surely time to find out what all of this is bringing to Dylan's own original art. He didn't win the Nobel Prize for crooning."
