Search - Frankie Laine :: Balladeer/Wanderlust

Simply THE Greatest!

Michael Pendragon | New York, NY United States | 06/05/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"If I were to select one album to be "The All-Time Greatest," it would have to be Frankie Laine's BALLADEER. It's certainly my all-time favorite.Although it was recorded over 40 years ago, not one of the tracks has dated. In fact, one would be hard pressed to even assign this album to a particular era/genre (as, for instance, one might term an Elvis Presley album "60s Style Pop/Rock," or a Frank Sinatra Album "60s Style Cabaret/Swing").These tracks might well have been recorded yesterday, or 100 years in the future. They're just that fresh. Or that much ahead of their time.Which might explain why this album has yet to receive the appreciation it deserves.Ostensibly, this is a collection of folk songs: but they don't really sound like folk songs ... not like you'd expect folk songs to sound, in any case."Rocks and Gravel," which opens the album, sounds every bit as gritty as the title suggests. Laine, backed by a male chorus, perfectly captures the sound, the anger, the back-breaking workload, of a chain gang. "On a Monday," which also has a prison theme, sounds somewhere between folk and R&B (with a touch of Jazz thrown in for good measure). "Lucy D," a song of obsession and murder, has a light Renaissance feel (similar to "Simon & Garfunkel's "Scarborough Fair" half a decade later). "Careless Love" opens with Laine's voice alone (the music slowly eases in during the second verse) and is the very definition of "timeless." "And Doesn't She Roll" (lyrics by Laine), has an African choral reminiscent of Paul Simon's "Graceland" album (20-odd years later). And so on.WANDERLUST, the second album on this double-CD is almost as great. Laine's jazzy take on Romberg's "Serenade" is just a sheer joy to listen to. "I Let Her Go," and Kipling's "On the Road to Mandalay" are also delights. Then there's Laine's up-tempo take on "Riders in the Sky" (the best version of the 15 or so versions of this song I've heard -- yes, even better than Vaughn Monroe's megahit), and "De Glory Road" which is a vocal tour de force that must be heard to be believed.The two albums complement each other very well, and deserve a top spot in everyone's music collection."