Rating:
Genre:
Vocal Music
Release Date: 11/11/2008
Run Time: 59:45
Originally,
Frank Sinatra had planned to record
Only the Lonely with
Gordon Jenkins, who had arranged his previous all-
ballads album,
Where Are You.
Jenkins was unavailable at the time of the sessions, which led
Sinatra back to his original arranger at
Capitol,
Nelson Riddle. The result is arguably his greatest
ballads album.
Only the Lonely follows the same formula as his previous down albums, but the tone is considerably bleaker and more desperate.
Riddle used a larger orchestra for the album than he had in the past, which lent the album a stately, nearly
classical atmosphere. At its core, however, the album is a set of brooding saloon songs, highlighted by two of
Sinatra's
tour de forces --
"Angel Eyes" and
"One for My Baby." Sinatra never forces emotion out of the lyric, he lets everything flow naturally, with grace. It's a heartbreaking record, the ideal late-night album.
~Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
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