JOSEPH DEBELL: OPINION EDITOR
Album cover is courtesy of @sinatra on Instagram
ALBUM SCORE: 4/5 Stars
Stars are courtesy of WIkimedia Commons
Frank Sinatra’s “No One Cares” album is a classic crooning record, even if its peaks aren’t as grand as the magnum opuses of “In The Wee Small Hours” or “Where Are You?”
Actor and jazz crooning artist Frank Sinatra is more than just the artist your grandma plays as she dances in the kitchen. He was one of the most popular entertainers of the mid-20th century, and his seventeenth studio album, “No One Cares,” is just as stunning as some of the best vocal jazz records of its era.
“No One Cares” acts as a second torch song concept record and is assisted by the likes of Gordon Jenkins. This is a familiar collab as Jenkins helped in Sinatra’s thirteenth record “Where Are You?”
Some of the main highlights from “No One Cares” stem from setting and maintaining the melancholic ambiance theme of the record. Take the into track as an example of this. It lays the record’s emotional groundwork with lush instrumentation and layers of strings. Sinatra’s vocals then set the tone for a passionate and lonely slow burn.
Other reasons for the record’s success stem from its metaphors. Knowingly melodramatic or not, the second track, “A Cottage For Sale,” accomplishes everything that the opener sets the stage for. The song uses an empty cottage as a metaphor for a failed relationship, the ending of a relationship or possible death. The music reaches an emotional peak when Sinatra sings about the empty space in the cottage. You can almost see Sinatra’s forlorn face as his voice catches.
“From every single window/ I see your face/ but when I reach the window/ there’s empty space”
“Stormy Weather” closes the first three songs of the record and is possibly the most chilling and darkest of them all. Its lyrics represent the confusion that comes from being lonely. It suggests that Sinatra doesn’t really remember why he feels this way but only knows that his partner isn’t with him and that the skies are grey. This version of “Stormy Weather” is not only a more fitting version given this album’s concept and instrumental palette but is also the best version all around as it features more dynamic changes.
“I Can’t Get Started” is a non-starter as it sounds like leftovers from Sinatra’s album “Where Are You?” Although this track boasts a new introduction, that intro is the song’s best part lyrically and sonically.
The album picks up again with “Why Try To Change Me Now.” Here, Sinatra becomes increasingly self-aware of his lonesome appearance to others. The lyrics go from Sinatra asking himself questions he can’t answer to self more self-degrading comments as he calls himself a clown — almost as a throwback to his fifteenth studio album cover, which features Sinatra in clown makeup.
“I’ll Never Smile Again” is yet another jazz standard that Sinatra reinvents to bolster this album’s concept. The song’s theme, while simple, is overwhelmingly present in this song and makes you want to reach towards the nearest box of Kleenex.
The closer, “None But The Lonely Heart is a knowingly melodramatic ballad with production that rivals some of the best climaxes of Frank Sinatra’s “In The Wee Small Hours” LP. The song ends the record with a simple message.
“None but the lonely heart/ Can know my sadness.”
The bonus tracks continue a tempo and feel similar to the rest of the record; the main highlight is the dramatic and almost opera-esque sound of “This Was My Love.” The horns, strings, and occasional violin solos complement Sinatra’s reflection about how special his love was to him. The song also has a grand payoff in the end, when Sinatra belts as the instrumentation crescendoes. I’m shocked that “This Was My Love” didn’t make it into the original track listing.
Even though it may not have as many climaxes and peaks as other melancholy records from Sinatra, “No One Cares” is an enthralling timeless classic crooning record.
debell22@bonaventure.edu
