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A long time ago, I tried to blog every album in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. I'd seen other people attempting it, and I wanted to try my hand, too. I think I got up to the first Beatles album before I gave up. I just sort of ran out of steam and couldn't think of anything else to say.
Well now I'm trying again.
My edition of reference this time is the 2021 updated edition of the book, so there'll probably be some variation and variety from similar attempts on the internet. I also feel a lot more confident this time that I'll actually see this through.
As to whether I have anything remarkable or insightful to say about these albums, I'm not really sure that I do. All I can do is state my reasons for wanting to do this. The first, and most simple, is that I'd like to listen to the albums in this book, and blogging about them provides a structure for me to go about doing that, while at the same time forcing me to engage with the albums critically rather than as mere background music. The second reason is that I used to write a lot, and haven't done so for many years. Doing this will force me to get into the habit of writing, and writing about something meaningful at that. And the third reason is that I simply like the idea of a great big project that I can work hard at and look back on with pride.
I'll admit there are probably better qualified persons for this task than myself. While I play a little guitar and keyboard, I'm musically illiterate. I'm still not even sure what a "tonic"is. I do have a reasonable general knowledge of music, however; and as a consequence I should be able to speak about some albums from a (very ill-)informed position.
Anyway, the grand adventure begins!
All of which brings us, finally, to the first album in the book - Frank Sinatra's In the Wee Small Hours.
Now I'll admit, a lot of these albums are going to be heard by me on YouTube or Spotify, and others I may buy on CD or happen to already own. ITWSH, however, is an album I can listen to as it was originally intended, as I happened to pick it up on vinyl from a charity shop many years ago. This is kind of interesting, as ITWSH was perhaps the first pop album to be issued as a 12-inch LP. Prior to the advent of the LP, albums were literally just that - a collecting of singles or EPs packaged in a little book, where you'd have to listen to the songs one by one. The familiar 12-inch LP with twenty odd minutes of play time to a side just wasn't a thing. By happy coincidence, Sinatra also decided on this album to apply a unifying concept, which hadn't really been a thing either. So ITWSH is a landmark for two different reasons.
None of which would matter if it wasn't any good. But not only is ITWSH good, it's really, really good. Not only is the song choice excellent, but the arrangements by Nelson Riddle are impeccable. This is a jazzy album - listeners familiar with some of the songs here from other recordings will notice that Sinatra bends and twists the melodies and rhythms in all sorts of peculiar ways. But it's always in service of the emotional core of the song. And the arrangements, rather than the big and brassy approach that one associates with Sinatra, are gentle and strange. The music forms and swells and dissolves behind Sinatra's foregrounded vocals, sometimes almost inaudible, while at other times swelling to glorious crescendos.
That said, this is a LP, and as such there are two sides. If I have a problem with ITWSH it's that side two simply can't compete with side one. Not only does side one have the gorgeous title track, but it also has Sinatra's beautiful renditions of "Glad to be Unhappy" and "Deep in a Dream". In fact, side one forms a near perfect suite of songs dealing with loneliness, heartache and despair.
Side two, conversely, features louder arrangements and a bolder vocal style, more in line with what one expects from Sinatra. It's still good, but it doesn't really continue the near-perfection of the first half. That said, it's still very pretty.
If I were going to sum this album up, I'd say that it's the sort of thing you should listen to alone, with a cigarette in one hand and a glass of wine in the other, while sighing a lot and pondering the various mistakes you've made. It's an album about loneliness, about losing the love of your life, and about the fantasies and lies we indulge in to tell ourselves that maybe it's not really over. But it is, and Sinatra knows it, and that tragic note is what elevates In the Wee Small Hours from a mere collection of mellow pop songs to a genuine work of art.
Best Songs: "In the Wee Small Hours"; "Glad to be Unhappy"; "Deep in a Dream".
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