So............ I've been listening to Sinatra's Columbia and Capitol work since February -- these days I actually listen to little else. Each time I "discover" a new track or album I am just gobsmacked, dumbfounded, stunned and stopped in my tracks at how incredibly rich and beautiful his catalog is. "Some things I've missed" indeed! So, finally for me it's on to the the Reprise years starting with: She Shot Me Down. If the music is half as cool as the cover, I think it's going to be great!!
Sadly my UMe pressing is full of non-fill issues and will be going back. Does anyone else feel that UMe pressings in general are slipping from the initial quality achieved with "In The Wee Small Hours" last year?
So, I finally received this album on CD. I’ve just listened to the album 3 times through so far and while this isn’t the voice of the Capitol 50’s, this is still one stunning, beautiful and emotional album. There’s a gruffness in his voice but it still had such amazing expressiveness … you’d think a singer like this could make albums with this voice for 20 more years. I know this was his last Reprise album but boy he could have made another 20 albums with THIS voice. Gordon’s arrangements are not quite as resplendent and “classical” as Where Are You, but still these are very “pop” and very cool arrangements, perfect for the material. My favorite song is “Hey Look No Crying”. And by the time you get to the medley with “It Never Entered My Mind” you realize Sinatra did it again. It’s a lovely album, so far my favorite of the Reprise years, only because I’ve spent so much time listening to the Capitol albums and the Columbia sides. Yeah the cover is cool too!
I'm listening to the album right now. Man, Monday morning quarterback sounds HAPPY after A long night and Bang bang!
Today I got the UMe reissue. Frank's voice is less gravelly than in my old worn 1981 Italian LP, but it still sounds like he's singing at the end of a corridor in a basement. Love the album, though.
I don't have any vinyl to compare, but I've just been listening to the three digital releases. (I think those are all that exist?) I'm definitely liking the 2010 CD the best. It may be a little "bright" for such a "dark" album, but I tend to lean in that direction anyway. Less echo, too. The 2014 HD download is louder, but even adjusted for that, it's all a bit pushed forward for my taste. Frank's vocal is way out in front, while on the 2010 CD everything sounds more balanced and detailed. That may be some of the brightness I mentioned but, again, I like that. The 1991 CD sounds like a dirty window compared to the two others. (The tracks in the Suitcase sound identical to the 1991 CD to me.) I noticed something odd, too, when I was comparing them. I loaded the three versions of "Bang Bang" into Audacity and kept switching between them. While I was doing that, I noticed that the waveforms for the 2010 CD look as though they are inverted. It jumped out at me visually, although I confess I didn't notice anything sonically. Is this a thing that happens in remixing/remastering? Here's a screenshot. Look at the 0:50 and 2:30 marks. 1991 CD is on top; 2010 CD is in the middle; 2014 HD download is on the bottom.
@MLutthans -- was wondering if you have had a chance to form any more opinions in the intervening years?
That inversion you see two posts back likely happened either during transfer to digital or during mastering. Nothing to be concerned about. Most gear these days (in my experience) with XLR connectors is wired "pin 2 hot," but some gear is "pin 3 hot." A swap like that will cause the inversion you see. The Mastering Lab console, for instance, is pin 3 hot. Sorry, @wvk3 -- I still haven't played this album in recent memory. Used to play it a lot!
True, but at least it was intentional. See the lengthy, first post in this thread: Famous Columbia Engineer Frank Laico Appreciation Thread - (UPDATE: RIP April 19, 2013)*
Thanks so much for that! Fascinating stuff... One of the things I wanted to find out when joining this forum was 'Why the crazy reverb on She Shot Me Down?' And now I know!
Relistening to it tonight. It's not the closet in the basement reverb that troubles me most. It's that the amount of it heavily varies between songs, so the effect is very uneven. All of them have this reverb, but some of them have a double helping of it. Still a great album, though.
