Frank Sinatra's Tetralogy of Despair

Hard to choose — I love all four — but I'm probably gonna go with No One Cares.

only for the lonely

Only the Lonely

Yep, Only the Lonely

I'd throw in Watertown in light of the new reissue.

My dad had two of these and they were probably his favourite records. The first record he bought when arriving in Canada in 1950 was The Voice of Frank Sinatra, a 10-inch disc which is apparently regarded as the first "pop" album. He preferred ballads to the swinging stuff, and he was listening to him in his last moments.
My experience with these records is that they're more intimate or tender than depressive per se, but I'll listen again before voting.

No One Cares is as harrowing as Big Star's Third.

I like how the title track on all four of these is track #1 which sets the tone for each.

Wee Small Hours carries a creative charge from coming first, launching a new form and style. Then there's the matchless cover art.

Only the Lonely is so good I might prefer it if I'd known it first. The other two albums are too monotonous in tempo and arrangement for my ears.

I'd have Watertown if it were available but of those here, Wee Small Hours. (I've never heard No One Cares <anxious teeth emoji>.)

no one cares is my favorite of these; these are the only sinatra albums I own on vinyl, I found all of them together for sale at a bookseller that sold books and sometimes records in an alley in the SF financial district. wonderful lunchtime find.

Sinatra's Capitol LP's are great ones to own, but try to get the original pressings, preferably the mono mixes where stereo mixes were also done. Long, convoluted story, but later pressings were cut from dubs that were also messed with (more echo, additional EQ). When they started mixing the albums in stereo, they added a ton of echo which was the fashionable trend at the time. It's way too much IMHO, Frank's nearly drowning in it - the mono mixes are much drier with at most a tasteful bit of it added.

I still have a few LP's, and it's pretty amazing how well these things were manufactured, especially for albums that probably had a million copies pressed of each one.

I've never heard Where Are You? and quickly need to change that. The other three are spectacular - No One Cares the most depressing but I think I like Wee Small Hours and Only the Lonely better. Tough choice!

I bought this box in 2014 for like $40; the first five discs are mono, the rest stereo.

Where Are You? is absolutely the best - sung from the very bottom of Frank's post Ava Gardner abyss.

xp That's the one with the original sleeve replicas, correct? It's a great looking set, and an incredibly cheap bargain.

However, it uses the 1998 and early '00s remasters by Bob Norberg. which a lot of fans don't like...BUT again it's a very affordable way to hear it all. In the past, a CD box set of those albums would've cost hundreds of dollars (and that's not even taking inflation into account), so $40 really is a steal. But for anyone who wants the CD's and the best sound possible, I'd get the original releases from 1987 through 1991 - I think they generally credit Larry Walsh as the engineer. They've got some issues as well, but the sound quality's better, especially for Songs for Swingin' Lovers. Also MFSL reissued a lot of the Capitol albums (but not all of them) on gold CD and SACD in the '00s and '10s. They're expensive, but if you can afford them, they're generally great. Some stereo, some mono. Their SACD of Songs for Swingin' Lovers is amazing but be warned they reissued the same album decades ago on gold CD (I think the only Capitol album they did for gold CD until those later reissues). Allegedly that older gold CD used the wrong master, so if you want to splurge, stick with the SACD's.

revisited all of these this week

only the lonely > in the wee small hours > no one cares > where are you

they're all tremendous

Sinatraphile writer Will Friedwald points out that there's exactly one blues-tinged song on each of the four albums:

Wee Small Hours = "Mood Indigo"
Where Are You? = "Baby, Won't You Please Come Home"
Only the Lonely = "Blues in the Night"
No One Cares = "Stormy Weather"

"One For My Baby" isn't blues(-tinged)?

Funny that you say that, I was just listening to that song and pondering that question. Maybe it was less bluesy as originally written? I don't know.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Keep meaning to get more of his late 50s lps . Only have a couple. Songs For Swinging Lovers was one of the few lps I could listen to when drunk in 1988 and has stuck with me since. I think I have at least one best of which may have the best of some of these lps on. But have always meant to get Only The Lonely at least. Think I may have read about it in comparison to peak era solo Van Morrison in the 80s in one of my brother's old stack of NMEs. Peak era at the time probably meaning early 70s.
Do love some of Frank's material and his daughter did some good stuff too.

I need to listen to the others, but chalk me up as No Ones Cares via Junior Boys.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Wow “Where Are You” is masterful.

no one cares and where are you are extremely intense albums, the arrangement performance of the latter’s title track really nails the feeling of being totally vertiginously unmoored after the end of a relationship