Songs for Swingin' Lovers (1956) — Frank Sinatra

Frank Sinatra's music is timeless. Something I love about old recordings, specifically Sinatra's, is that they feel so close. Listening to this album felt like I was in the room with the musicians. Recorded music tends to be so produced now, which isn't always a bad thing, but this album definitely made me wish there were more efforts to simplify the process sometimes.

Of course, as is the case with most older music, this wasn't the most exciting listen, and the songs did seem to mimic each other at times. Even then, Sinatra's silky vocals and intentional lyrical delivery made me return to this album a few times after my first listen.

I especially enjoyed his rendition of Anything Goes. He took a classic song and completely made it his own with only minor changes. Sinatra was a master at singing like he was conversing. He really communicated with his listeners, and there's a joyful lightness to the way he interpreted the words of songs. At a time when most songs were written by writers instead of the artists themselves, he took great care of other people's work and did his due diligence as a vocalist.

Despite the fact that this isn't my exact type of album, Sinatra ensured that I, along with all of his listeners, spent the 45 minutes listening to this album fully immersed in the stories he was telling.