Frank Sinatra's Watertown

[METALMAN]

This sounds amazing - anyone listened to it?

Wiki says:

“Watertown is a 1970 studio album by the American singer Frank Sinatra. It charts the story of a middle-aged man in Watertown, New York, whose wife has left him with his children.

It is similar in tone and nature to Sinatra's earliest concept albums, albums that evoke an air of despair and loneliness, found on such albums as 1958's Frank Sinatra Sings for Only the Lonely and 1955's In the Wee Small Hours. "Watertown" was produced and co-written by Bob Gaudio, of the 1960s pop vocal group The Four Seasons. The songs were co-written by Jake Holmes. The album was released to mixed critical reviews and poor sales.”

but...Allmusic says:

“Watertown is Frank Sinatra's most ambitious concept album, as well as his most difficult record. Not only does it tell a full-fledged story, it is his most explicit attempt at rock-oriented pop. Since the main composer of Watertown is Bob Gaudio, the author of the Four Seasons' hits "Can't Take My Eyes Off of You," "Walk Like a Man," and "Big Girls Don't Cry," that doesn't come as a surprise. With Jake Holmes, Gaudio created a song cycle concerning a middle-aged, small-town man whose wife had left him with the kids. Constructed as a series of brief lyrical snapshots that read like letters or soliloquies, the culminating effect of the songs is an atmosphere of loneliness, but it is a loneliness without much hope or romance -- it is the sound of a broken man. Producer Charles Calello arranged musical backdrops that conveyed the despair of the lyrics. Weaving together prominent electric guitars, keyboards, drum kits, and light strings, Calello uses pop/rock instrumentations and production techniques, but that doesn't prevent Sinatra from warming to the material. In fact, he turns in a wonderful performance, drawing out every emotion from the lyrics, giving the album's character depth.”

Some other chap says:

"“If ever I’m asked why I think hipsters are wankers, Watertown is exhibit one.

Watertown is an album whose good qualities are absolutely self-evident. Anyone with ears – and I do mean anyone– would have to admit this is a very good album. In terms of thematic unity, quality, and feel, this site easily with the first four Scott Walker solo albums, Pet Sounds, Astral Weeks and the first couple of Leonard Cohen albums. While it was never a hit, it’s not like Sinatra is a horribly obscure artist, and so by rights this should, at the very least, be one of those albums that get ‘rediscovered’ by that weird coalition of hipsters and Mojo-reading dadrock lovers that brought Nick Drake, Big Star and Pacific Ocean Blue out of obscurity.

But the difference is that all the music I’ve mentioned above is essentially juvenile, and therefore ‘cool’. The concerns of, say, Pet Sounds, magnificent as it is, are those of a teenager – does she really love me? How can I balance what I want with what my parents say? Do I really love her? And teenage angst is cool and romantic.

Even Sinatra’s own earlier work – say Sings For Only The Lonely, no matter how downbeat, are the loneliness of a rinky-dink, shooby-dooby-doo swell kinda guy man about town, sat depressed in a New York bar at midnight with his suit disheveled and his tie hanging loose telling the barman about the one who got away.So they’re OK. They’re safe.

Watertown on the other hand is different. It’s a concept album, like many of Sinatra’s early albums, but this is a specially-composed song cycle, and it’s told from the point of view of a middle-aged divorcé trying to bring up his two kids as a single parent in a small town, reflecting on his wife’s adultery, constantly reliving the last moments of his marriage, and trying to find a way to make it not have happened. Where’s the fun in that?!"

[Skummy]

That sounds fucking incredible. I've never heard it, and I will endeavour to track it down the minute I get home.

Have you heard "...Sings For Only The Lonely"? It's one of my all-time favourite albums, and what changed my opinion of Sinatra around completely.

[METALMAN]

Yeah I love For Only The Lonely. One of my favourites by Sinatra. My ex used to like to put on Frank Sinatra's sad albums and drink whisky quite a lot. She was a strange one.

It resulted in me hearing Sings For Only The Lonely an awful lot though, which was good. Whisky not great though. >_>

I think my favourite Frank Sinatra album might be Come Fly With Me though. It has a nice atmosphere.