Songs for Swingin' Lovers - Frank SinatraThe second Frank Sinatra album on the list (the first being "In the Wee Small Hours") couldn't be more different than the one that started this list - except, perhaps, in the sense that it is also awesome.
The thing that hits you instantly is the dramatic shift in mood. While "In the Wee Small Hours" is sad and melancholy, "Songs for Swingin' Lovers" is much more light-hearted, and, well... swingin'.
This one is filled with love songs (I suppose Sinatra got over Ava Gardner pretty quickly - or, more likely, the record label didn't want another depressing break-up album). The arrangements are not nearly as sparse and minimal, and the album, as a whole, sounds much bigger.
Featuring a whole slew of classic Sinatra tunes ("Old Devil Moon", "Pennies From Heaven", "I've Got You Under My Skin", "Makin' Whoopie", etc.), while I don't think I've ever listened to this album, at least not as a whole, it fells oddly familiar - like I had heard it a hundred times before. Having grandparents that were obsessed with Frank Sinatra, and spending a lot of time with them as a child, this may be a possibility - but if this is the case, those listenings are stored somewhere in my subconsciousness. It is like meeting someone for the first time but feeling as if you have known them your whole life.
Whenever I hear someone say they don't like Frank Sinatra, I have the exact same reaction as when I hear some one say they "don't like water". Is that not a requirement in order to be alive? I feel like liking Sinatra is simply part of what defines humans as human. What is there not to like? What is there not to love? To Sinatra haters, all I can do is stare, speechless, eye-brow raised, observing a creature which cannot possibly be of this planet.
Do I recommend this album? You'd better believe it! A+++.
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