MUSIC OR DIE #1–Frank Sinatra, "In the Wee Small Hours" (1955)

And so begins the first part of my roughly 1000 part series, MUSIC OR DIE. 

(For info on that, clickety-click-click)

TL;DR:
It's an album that is described best by its cover art: moody and blue (but not The Moody Blues), and effortlessly captures that feeling of 2 a.m. sad introspection and loneliness. A classic.

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The songs:

1.) In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning 

With its first spindly little notes, this song effectively sets the tone for the album. It's a song (and record) about love in its sadder forms–spurned love, pining love, resigned love. 

"Tainted Love" entered into it as well, I'm fairly certain, even though 80s hit Soft Cell did not.

The emphasis is on that resigned tone, the blue fog that seems to settle over the world in those 'wee hours' between night and day– "In the wee small hours of the morning/That's the time you miss her most of all".

2.) Mood Indigo

Continues where "In the Wee Small Hours..." leaves off. Slow jazzy drums back this pining song that hones in even more on the themes of dejection and loneliness, with lines like "I'm just a soul who's bluer than blue can be/When I get that mood indigo/I could lay me down and die". Heavy words coming from the man who had been the focus of 'Sinatra mania' only a few years before that.

3.) Glad To Be Unhappy

The opening notes are reminiscent of the beginning of album opener "In the Wee Small Hours...", paring off to minimal instrumental backing. Here he turns the blame and focus inward, contrasting his previous happy state with his current self who is down for the count. Yet he lies to himself telling himself 'he is glad' for his misery. 

A precursor to this, perhaps?

4.) I Get Along Without You Very Well

The self-delusion continues, with the addition of mournful violins playing out a sort of call-and-response with his words that yes, he's fine even without his lover. His resolve crumbles momentarily, as he asks himself "Should I phone once more?", the music stopping abruptly, the illusion crumbling. It picks up again as he decides, "No, it's best that I stick to my tune." Still, his voice grows quieter and quieter to the end of the song, when he finally realizes that perhaps his fantasy isn't going to stand up quite so well.

5.) Deep In a Dream

The fantasy shifts. Now he dreams of a world where his lover is still with him. Sinatra's voice is especially emotive here, soaring as he sings "We glide through a lover's refrain", only to mellow as he wakes from his dream, tinged with bittersweet nostalgia as he finishes with the words, "Awake or asleep, every memory I'll keep/Deep in a dream of you".   (Seems almost related to the song, "Dream a Little Dream of Me")

6.) I See Your Face Before Me

His love continues to haunt him in this number. Of all the songs thus far (I'm typing this as I listen in order), this to my untrained ear sounds the most 'Sinatra', particularly from about two-thirds through to the end, with its flutes, harps, and violins ebbing and flowing with his voice. It has a pretty dreamy harp outro. 

7.) Can't We Be Friends?

The opening instantly reminded me of the opening of "Class" from Chicago.

This...actually looks like an appropriate setting for this song.

Compared to "I See Your Face...", this song switches gears abruptly. What sound like Spanish guitars strum in, with jazzy piano backing Sinatra's opening lines: "I took each word she said as gospel truth/The way a silly little child would". After the dramatic opening, the song settles into a calmer pace as he reflects on the bad ending to what he'd thought was going to be a fairy tale. His voice cracks as he sings "I thought I found a gal I could trust/What a bust". A personal standout. 

8.) When Your Lover Has Gone

He ponders on the value of even bothering to fall in love in the first place. The lyrics play up the fanciful nature of this 'love' business, mentioning "castles in the air" and the death of "magic moonlight". 

Not to be confused with this.

So ends Side One of this album.

9.) What Is This Thing Called Love?

Hello, clarinet! How are you? A welcome change in instrumentation to open the second half of the album, as it also adds to the late night/early morning, smoky, 'bar-fly' feel of the album as a whole. He turns to asking the Big Guy in the Sky, "Just what is this thing called love?" since it doesn't really seem so great. 

What is love, anyway?

It's a short number, but a great start for Act II. 

10.) Last Night When We Were Young

Harps flit about at the start, fittingly given the nostalgia-drenched, retrospective nature of this song. Sinatra draaaaaags out the word "ages" as he reflects on just how long ago it was that he and his were young and happy in love ("aaaaages ago", in fact). You can feel how he aches in this song. 

11.) I'll Be Around
The opening notes remind me, of all things, of a music box. 

I'm such a 90s kid.

So, as I listened, I imagined him sitting in his smoke-filled, dark room, wallowing in sadness as he looks at an old gift from an old flame. Despite all that this lover has done to him, he isn't moving on or going anywhere. "Now and then drop a line/To say that you're feeling fine" he pleads. It reeks of desperation in the heart-wrenchingly best way. 

  

12.) Ill Wind

The opening notes made me think of The Wizard of Oz, the lyrics of the old nursery rhyme "Rain Rain Go Away". He tiredly tells the wind to bugger off as it's cramping his style. Notable saxophone solo about two and a half minutes in. It's also the longest song on the album (which isn't saying much, as it's only about 3:46). 

13.) It Never Entered My Mind

It paints a picture of all the strange little domestic things that change when someone leaves your life (this time, from his own doing)–"Now I even have to scratch my back myself." Should've listened to the warnings, yo.

14.) Dancing on the Ceiling

Not gonna lie, this is the first thing I thought of when I saw the title:

There's nothing I dislike about this image. Nothing.

It's more "The Raven" than The Richie, as he laments/rejoices, "At night I creep in bed/And never sleep in bed/But look above in the air/And to my greatest joy, my love is there". It's an interesting take on the theme of love and loss that permeates the album, and certainly one I wasn't so familiar with. Still wish there'd been more Richie, though.

15.) I'll Never Be The Same

Pretty much what it says on the tin. The world is changed for him, now that his lover is gone. Musically more lush and 'romantic' than the others, particularly the violin-driven intro and outro. 

16.) This Love Of Mine

And so we reach the end of the album, and what a hopeless sort of end. He sobs out the lines, "But oh! the night/I cry my heart out/It's bound to break/Since nothing matters/let it break." Instrumentally similar to "I'll Never Be the Same", with lots of pretty violin. What's to become of his love, as it "goes on and on"? 

Get out of here, Celine. 

FINAL THOUGHTS:

I have rarely listened to a more thematically or musically cohesive album. It's easy to see what Rolling Stone meant when they called it a "prototypical concept album", and I'd say a prototypical breakup album as well. Sinatra's voice is like velvet...sad, sad velvet. I don't know what that means either, but I stand by it. I grew up listening to Sinatra, but always from song to song, and surprisingly never any of the songs on this particular album. As a result, hearing this in its entirety with my "adult" (pfffft) ears was a treat.

Personal standout tracks: 

"Mood Indigo", "I Get Along Without You Very Well", "Can't We Be Friends?", "I'll Be Around"