Nancy Sinatra – Nancy Sinatra (2004) » The Music Mag

Nancy Sinatra – Nancy Sinatra (2004)

In this daily section, I’m going to pick a record from my collection at random, play it through one more time and write a review for it. Simple enough.

Nancy Sinatra, in her 60s pomp, was all attitude and sex appeal. More likely to swagger than swoon, her hits dripped with raw charm and style and she remains one of the most enduring female icons of the decade, despite her albums being a bit of a mixed bag. The singles, themselves are iconic but the albums are a bit less so with her appeal and all-together coolness not being enough to carry a full album. On this, a 2004 return, it takes a side-step for downtrodden pop songs and it succeeds.

The songs themselves weren’t written by Sinatra but rather for her by a bevy of famous friends, ranging from the likes of Bono (“Two Shots of Happy, One Shot of Sad” and Morrissey (“Let me Kiss You” to Joey Burns of Calexico fame (“Burnin’ Down the Spark” and it’s the latter who provides the album’s highlight in the first track. A melancholic country romp, retaining all the great hooks and choruses that make Calexico so worthwhile to listen to and it’s an excellent reworking for Nancy.

The closer (the aforementioned Bono written “…Shots…”) is another highlight as Nancy trades the effortless swagger for that of a musing jazz crooner and brings up memories of her father’s brilliant pipes. It’s a surprise that her voice is the highlight of the whole album though; for all the praise you could throw at Nancy Sinatra, her voice was not worthy of a lot of it but in old age, it has matured, become passionate and most of all, improved.

This is most evident on “Let Me Kiss You” as she harmonises with Morrissey, belting out an impassioned slice of 80s Indie with a conviction that we never knew existed. But, not every song on the album results in a success; The John Spencer penned “Ain’t No Easy Way” fails to work around Nancy’s matured voice and instead sounds like a relic from her 60s prime and Thurston Moore’s “Momma’s Boy” falls into the trap of sounding like a Nancy and Lee number without the brilliance of Hazelwood, dropping a distorted guitar line and bland lyrics into an album that strives to show a different side of Nancy Sinatra. On an album that hints at a future maturation for her, it seems far too backward-looking.

Overall, this album is a shocker in almost every aspect. Nancy’s voice, the strength of the songs and the fact that this album sounds as coherent as it does with the disjointed nature. It’s not an album to search out as an introduction to Nancy Sinatra but as a notch in her belt, it’s an all-together welcome one.