Tracks
- Kentucky
- I'll Be All Smiles Tonight
- Let Her Go, God Bless Her
- What Is Home Without Love
- A Tiny Broken Heart
- In the Pines
- Alabama
- Katie Dear
- My Brother's Will
- Knoxville Girl
- Take the News to Mother
- Mary of the Wild Moor
Tragic Songs of Life is an apt title for this dark album. Most songs feature a character suffering one sort of tragedy or another; often of their own making, but sometimes not. As murder ballad go, Knoxville Girl is quite brutal.
Despite the dark themes, this is an enjoyable album to listen to. The Louvin Brothers sing close harmony and sound really good, even with the Southern twang. The music is simple enough, just a guitar and mandolin, to focus attention on the singing, but unfortunately the songs all sound the same and continue to even after listening to the album several times.
Stand out tracks are Kentucky, Katie Dear, Knoxville Girl, Take the News to Mother and Mary of the Wild Moor.
★★★★★★★☆☆☆
Tracks
- Blue Suede Shoes
- I'm Counting on You
- I Got a Woman
- One-Sided Love Affair
- I Love You Because
- Just Because
- Tutti Frutti
- Trying to Get to You
- I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Cry (Over You)
- I'll Never Let You Go (Lil' Darlin')
- Blue Moon
- Money Honey
This is Elvis Presley's first studio album. It's a combination of recordings done for Sun Records and RCA Records. The Sun recordings are country songs and the RCA recordings are rhythm and blues. Because of this, the album is uneven.
Elvis generally does a better job with the rhythm and blues songs. Blue Suede Shoes, Tutti Frutti, Money Honey are the better tracks on the album. However, even these tracks lack energy and excitement. Little Richard's Tutti Frutti is far superior to Elvis'. Ironically, the song that demonstrates Elvis' true rhythm and blues potential is the country song, Trying to Get to You.
This album is enjoyable and worth listening to more than once, but it's uneven and some of the songs aren't performed to their full potential.
★★★★★★☆☆☆☆
Tracks
- In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning
- Mood Indigo
- Glad to Be Unhappy
- I Get Along Without You Very Well
- Deep in a Dream
- I See Your Face Before Me
- Can't We Be Friends?
- When Your Lover Has Gone
- What Is This Thing Called Love?
- Last Night When We Were Young
- I'll Be Around
- Ill Wind
- It Never Entered My Mind
- Dancing on the Ceiling
- I'll Never Be the Same
- This Love of Mine
In the Wee Small Hours is an interesting start to the "1001 Albums" list. Frank Sinatra is wonderful to listen to and Nelson Riddle's arrangements work well in the background and never overshadow Ol' Blue Eyes. However, the album is pretty darn depressing from the first song to the last. I suppose losing Ava Gardner will do that to a poor fellow.
The album starts out strong with In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning and Mood Indigo. It picks up again with Can't We Be Friends? and When Your Lover Has Gone and ends strong with Ill Wind and Dancing on the Ceiling.
In the Wee Small Hours is an album worth listening to, but it's certainly not an album that can be listened to at any time. Thus, it's a very good album, but not a great one.
★★★★★★★★☆☆
