Frank Sinatra - My Way CD Review

Written by General Jabbo

In 1968, Frank Sinatra took a stab at modern pop rock with his album Cycles. While the results were a mixed bag, that didn’t stop Sinatra from trying again. In 1969, he released My Way, which successfully blended his beloved standards with modern pop-rock songs.

The album opens with the laid-back swing of “Watch What Happens,” with Sinatra in fine voice and Don Costa’s arrangements driving the song while “Didn’t We” is a tender ballad brimming with optimism.

The pop-rock cuts, for the most part, work. Sinatra delivers a bluesy, swinging take on Ray Charles’ “Hallelujah I Love Her So,” and, at age 53, when he sings “Suddenly, I’m not half the man I used to be” on his cover of “Yesterday,” the line takes on an entirely different meaning than when Paul McCartney sang it. “Mrs. Robinson” with its changed lyrics and swinging arrangement falls flat however.

My Way includes two staples of Sinatra’s later concert career — the legendary title track, which would also serve as a sort of theme song for the singer and “For Once in My Life,” also made famous by Stevie Wonder.

Long out of print, Concord Records has reissued the classic album with remastered sound and liner notes by U2’s Bono. To Concord’s credit, the album is well mastered and not “brick walled” as so many modern CDs are, allowing the dynamics of the album to shine through. The quiet parts are as they should be — quiet. As a result, when the orchestra kicks in, you really feel it.

Concord has also added two bonus tracks, a rehearsal take of “For Once in My Life” recorded at the NBC Studio in Burbank, CA in 1969 and a live rendition of “My Way” recorded at Reunion Arena in Dallas, TX in October of 1987.

It’s a shame more of Sinatra’s remarkable catalog is not in print save for digital downloads. One can hope that this release will be the catalyst for future Sinatra CD releases. In the meantime, My Way offers an enjoyable listen of an interesting point in Sinatra’s storied career.

U2 - The Joshua Tree Remastered 2-CD Expanded Edition Review

Written by General Jabbo

It's been 20 years since U2 released their landmark album, The Joshua Tree. The album that made them go from big to huge from arenas to stadiums. The album that put them in the same rarefied air as the Beatles or the Stones. The album that put them on the cover of Time magazine and garnered the band their first Grammy awards. The album that was number 26 in Rolling Stone's top 500 albums of all time list. To commemorate the anniversary of this historic album, Island is re-releasing it in an expanded two-CD edition. A version exists with a bonus DVD live in Paris, 1987 as well.

After touring extensively in the United States for their previous albums, U2 set out to record an album that represented what they saw of America at the time. "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" is the band's response to the materialism of the period, while "Bullet the Blue Sky" is about the American military effort to overthrow the leftist government in El Salvador and remains appropriate in the current political climate.

Not all the songs were about America, however. The song "Running to Stand Still" details the heroin epidemic in Dublin in U2's native Ireland. The album also contains some of the band's best-loved singles, including "Where the Streets Have No Name," "In God's Country" and "With or Without You."

The second disc contains a number of B-sides to the album's many singles, compilation songs such as "Silver and Gold (Sun City)" from the Sun City - Artists United Against Apartheid album and some unreleased songs from The Joshua Tree sessions. Here we find songs that either didn't have time to be finished (the band had a glut of material during this period) or which ended up becoming one of the songs on the finished album. One such example is "Desert of Our Love," which formed the basis of "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For." These unreleased tracks provide a fascinating insight into the songwriting process for the band.

The CD comes in a slipcase, with liner notes by Bill Flanagan and The Edge and features a number of photos, as well as lyrics to the songs.

It's easy to look at U2 now as one of the biggest bands in the world, if not the biggest. However, Joshua Tree is the album that put them in that position. One cannot underestimate how huge the album was upon its release and, like many classic albums before it, the impact it continues to have to this day. This reissue is a worthy document of perhaps U2's finest hour.