That’s what happened for four songs on this next album before I realized. However, since it is a compilation album (and since I wasn’t terribly enjoying it) I made a note of which songs I’d heard to avoid repeat. I don’t usually do that, but in this case, it was called for. And now the review.
Disc 372 is...Bachelor Pad Royale
Artist: Various
Year of Release: 1996, but featuring music from 1956 to 1965
What’s Up With The Cover?: A pretty basic ‘swingin’’ design. Of note, the garnish in the martini glass is formed into the shape of a reclining woman. I’m not sure I ever noticed that before.
How I Came To Know It: Back in the mid-nineties, in that brief period when swing was king, there was a display of “ultra lounge” discs at A&B sound (when that existed). I bought Volume 5, “Wild, Cool and Swingin’” and loved it, so we got a couple more, and this was one of those couple more.
How It Stacks Up: Compilations aren’t ‘best ofs’ per se, but they can’t really stack up. Against the other two Ultra Lounge albums we have, this one is probably third. Of interest, there are 18 of these albums out there. Yikes.
Rating: 2 stars (but an extra star for the liner notes – see below).
I finished listening to this album yesterday, but didn't have time to blog. Instead of another day of walking to and from work to it, I slipped in a new album for an Odyssey break (Dan Mangan's "Oh Fortune") until I could get to the review.
Then, I couldn't get it in before driving to the gym tonight. Instead of giving it another listen, I slipped in another new purchase for the trip, (Ice-T's "Power").
So as you can see, the album didn't really grab my attention other than my actively avoiding it. I am listening to it now, however - soaking in it if you will - for the purposes of writing these few lines of warning to you, gentle reader.
The return of swing - musically and aesthetically - was a fun part of the middle to late nineties, and as you know from previous entries, I was caught up in it all like so many people. I don't regret that. I got to know throwback bands like Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, and filled out my music collection with some fine Sinatra albums.
However, like any craze - be it disco, or hip hop or eighties metal, you're going to get a lot of filler, as soulless record execs fill the insatiable demand for what's in (as well as their filthy lucre-filled coffers). "Bachelor Pad Royale" is one of those.
It isn't that the songs are offensive; it's much worse than that - they're forgettable. The production is pretty good, but the music (most of it instrumental) is just blah. It is the kind of stuff you hear quietly played in the bar of that hotel you're staying at for a business trip. You know - it's Tuesday night, and you're not ready to turn in, but don't know anyone in town, so you're having a nightcap in a big comfy leather chair and everything is relaxing. You're slightly jet-lagged, but you've done your work for the day and you've ordered a martini. The place has three other people in it - all equally weary travellers, and you have no energy to meet them, and they feel the same.
And behind it all, is this mood-driven music. Not quite elevator music - better than that - but not enough to actually get the room moving, and frankly the staff will be happy to see the last of you leave so they can close early. You eat the complimentary peanuts, and order a second drink but it isn't the music that's keeping you - if anything it's your stubborness not to have it drive you out as it seems designed to do.
That's the challenge "Bachelor Pad Royale" faces and fails to overcome. If anything, the CD liner notes acknowledge it's music to clear a room to, bragging it is "the perfect musical nightcap for private dicks and dames." Adding "dicks and dames" doesn't change that what they're really saying is you should go to bed after listening to it.
The production is pretty good on this album, and the whole series, and there are recognizeable tracks, but too many of them are theme songs from period movies like "Our Man Flint" or obvious crowd pleasers like Sam Butera doing "Fever," although I have a much better version of that on another album.
I dug Julie London doing "Black Coffee" but I dig the "tough dame" act from the era so it was an easy sell. Alvino Rey's "Night Train" just had me longing for the edgier James Brown version.
The best thing about this album was the liner notes. At a time when downloads have in large part killed compact disc sales, this album reminds you of how much value-added fun you can get from the CD experience.
In addition to a groovy introduction to the styles on the album (which way oversells the quality, but never mind that), we get a quick synopsis of each song, and when it was released.
You also get a couple of drink recipes. "Bachelor Pad Royale" has the best one, the "James Bond's Martini" which holds a monster 4 1/2 ounces of liquor. At one of my birthday parties I vowed to drink them exclusively for the night. I believe I was asleep by 11 PM, but I'm told it was an excellent party.
The album notes also have a few generic notes on serving cocktails common to all of them. Hints include, "It is better to serve a fine tall drink or cocktail in the wrong glass than a poor one in the right glass. It is best to have both drink and glass just right." and my favourite line - which I still use to this day, "Sophisticated drinkers...like a lot of liquor but only a touch of flavouring; unsophisticated drinkers the other way around."
I usually swap in "experienced" for "sophisticated" because of the negative word origin connotations for the latter, but that tale is for another entry.
As for "Bachelor Pad Royale" it is unfortunately the musical equivalent of a poor drink in the right glass. It cleans up nice, but ultimately not something I'd recommend for listening unless you're trapped in a Holiday Inn lounge with nowhere else to go, and it's all they'll put on.
Best tracks: Nothing great. If I had to choose I’d go with Alvino Rey’s “Night Train”, Sam Butera’s “The Boulevard of Broken Dreams/Fever” and Julie London’s “Black Coffee.”
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