Love. When you feel it it is as if you are on top of the world. When a relationship ends, as the lyrics to "Once I Loved" explain, love is the saddest thing when it goes away. That is basically what "Only the Lonely" is about.

If we were to compare this album with say "In the Wee Small Hours" I like to look at it this way. "Hours" was the courtship of the relationship. A boy tells a girl he loves her. Think of songs such as "I'll Be Around", or "Can't We Friends". No relationship has materialize yet as the lovelorn boy bemuses himself thinking "What Is This Thing Called Love". But on "Only the Lonely" the couple has started a relationship and now it has ended.

I first bought this album when my then girlfriend and I broke up three years ago. As the years have passed we are still apart but I still have album. I wish it was the other way around but to quote another Sinatra song, "That's Life".

I mention my own experiences to tell you only those whom have felt the pain of lost love can really appreciate this wonderful musical masterpiece. Had I heard these songs without ever feeling pain I may infact have liked the album but it wouldn't have resonated as strong as it does now.

For example, lets discuss my two favorite tracks. If I ever did meet my ex again, I would perhaps feel like telling her exactly what the lyrics to "What's New" are. That song perfectly captures the sudden rush you might feel after seeing a long lost love. And what about the arrangement! Nelson Riddle, in my opinion Sinatra's best arranger, compliments the melody with his arrangements. Riddle's work never overshadows the songs. They do not distract us from paying attention to what Sinatra is singing about.

"Good-bye" is also a gem because it too is exactly what you might like to tell a lover. The remorse you feel as the sad fact of the relationship's doom hits you.

Perhaps I'm making "Only the Lonely" sound very depressing, well, in a way it's suppose to be. How do you make an album about lost love bright and bouncy and still retain a sense of truth to it?

Throughout history one can agrue there have been better singers than Sinatra. Tony Bennett? Dean Martin? Mel Torme? Nat "King" Cole? Sammy Davis Jr.? And they may have a point, although I do not think they are right, but what has made Sinatra, even after his death, still regarded as the greatest? The chairman of the board? I think it's because the man simply had the best arrangers working for him. I once heard someone say this album could have sold as an instrumental and still been a hit. And they are probably right. Listen to Sinatra, on any album, and you'll notice how his arrangements blow the others away. Listen to Sinatra sing the Beatles song "Something" off his "Trilogy" album, than listen to Bennett's verison. You tell me which better capture the mood of the song. Or listen to Sinatra sing "I'll Only Miss Her When I Think Of Her". I've yet to hear someone top it.

"Only the Lonely" is an album I've listened to more and more as the years have gone by. As each romance I've been as has fallen through. I still find new things to discover about the album. Certain songs which at one time meant little to me now carry a whole new meaning. I guess that's one of the great things about music. The more we live and love the more songs reflect our experience and who better has been able to capture those feelings we hide from others than Sinatra?

Bottom-line: One of Sinatra's best albums. An album rich in emotion. Sinatra is able to convey what we have all felt at one time or another when love has left us.

One of Sinatra's very best albums, it ranks up there with In the Wee Small Hours. A concept album that explores that dark edges of his artistic gifts. Those who just think Ol' Blue Eyes was into big brassy sounds will be in for a big surprise.

I was going to write a suicide note after listening to this disc but decided to review it instead. Sinatra's mournful voice and the downbeat, restrained arrangements evoke a world of lonely men wandering the streets by night, crying to their bartenders, and sitting alone in darkened rooms, sipping whiskey in silences interrupted only by the clink of ice cubes. The only flaw here is that the mood is so relentlessly depressing that it threatens to slide into self-parody (and that album cover doesn't help). I find this disc works best in measured doses. The most potent tracks include "Angel Eyes" and "One for My Baby."