With an all-star cast of contemporary and well-aged stars behind him, Jakob Dylan reimagines the sounds of Laurel Canyon circa 1966 with astounding success. 

Dylan doesn’t so much recreate the music of the Mamas & the Papas, the Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, the Beach Boys and others as he reassesses it with a modern bent. He’s the star here and though he sounds more like his father than Denny Dougherty, Roger McGuinn, Stephen Stills or Brian Wilson, this lack of imitation is what makes Echo in the Canyon (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) such a delight. 

Taken alone, “Go Where You Wanna Go,” with Jade Castrinos, or the Association’s “Never My Love,” with Norah Jones, add nothing to the numbers. But within the context of the LP – where Stills kicks in guitar on his own “Questions” and Neil Young does the same on the Beach Boys’ “I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times” and the Byrds’ “What’s Happening” – they tell a story that needs telling and build a road back to the originals. 

Oddly, Stills and Young take a pass on the Springfield’s “Expecting to Fly,” where Regina Spektor shares vocal duties with Dylan. 

With shimmery production inspired by Pet Sounds, plenty of jingling-and-jangling Rickenbacker guitars a lathe Byrds and delicious cameos from Fiona Apple (“In My Room,” “It Won’t Be Wrong”), Beck (“The Bells Of Rhymney”) and others, Echo in the Canyon is full of fresh takes that reverberate through the decades and reinforce their progenitors’ staying power.