Wednesday, May 13, 2009

cycles



I read Will Oldham extolling the virtues of Sinatra's pop-rock attempt Cycles in an interview years ago but am just now getting to it. It sounds a lot like Sinatra doing anything. If Sinatra was a cattle auctioneer he would sound exactly like this, moving at the pace of thick syrup with a string section ushering cows into and out of pens. I do appreciate the "Oh jeez, has it come to this, Frank?" aspect of the cover photo, as if covering Joni Mitchell and Glen Campbell is crossing a forbidden line. (listen)



If you are gonna go Frank, which for some reason I am doing, its a good record, but doesn't hold a snuffed candle to his honey-dipped meditation on his own mortality September of My Years (listen) Recorded when he was 50 in 1965, he saw the writing on the wall, and in that writing came one of his finest albums.

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