Roy Orbison - The Monument Album Collection (2015) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

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Roy Orbison - The Monument Album Collection (2015) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

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Roy Orbison - The Monument Box (2015)
4 Albums | FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time - 126:45 minutes | 2,85 GB
Studio Master, Official Digital Download | Artwork: Front cover(s)

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Roy Orbison - The Monument Album Collection (2015) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

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Roy Orbison - Sings Lonely And Blue (1961/2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time - 31:20 minutes | 726 MB
Studio Master, Official Digital Download | Artwork: Front cover

Time and familiarity – through multiple reissues – may have muted the seeming significance of some of what's here, but in 1961 Sings Lonely and Blue was not only a breakthrough for Roy Orbison as his debut LP, but also for rock & roll. Up to that point, apart from Elvis Presley – who was in a class by himself – few white rock & rollers had even tried to make as bold a use of the LP as what we hear on this record. Orbison, his collaborator Joe Melson, and producer Fred Foster turned the singer's debut long-player into a huge canvas for a sound that combined rock & roll's beat, Nashville's countrypolitan sound, and the singer's unique multi-octave range and operatic intensity into something unique in music. The single "Only the Lonely" may have been the most accessible and commercial side of this new sound, but the whole album was packed with great moments and different permutations of that sound: the powerful lead vocal and the Boots Randolph sax break on "I'll Say It's My Fault"; the haunting Orbison-Melson "Come Back to Me (My Love)," which was like a mini-movie script, a vest-pocket romantic melodrama sung with operatic depth and played to a light rock & roll beat; Don Gibson's "I'd Be a Legend in My Time," and "I Can't Stop Loving You," both filled with larger-than-life musical attributes and emotions behind Orbison's extraordinary singing, Orbison treating the former almost like a Verdi aria while a sax solo, the Anita Kerr Singers, and a dense string section hold it in the realm of pop music; and "Bye Bye Love" given the new Orbison treatment and sounding like a country-pop symphony. The material was uniformly strong and consistent, probably due, in part, to the fact that Fred Foster was able to draw from nearly a year's worth of recording activity to assemble the contents of the album, and he also took advantage of the album's stereo release to devise a crisp, discreet, two-channel mix that brought out all of the details of this sound in notably sharp relief, creating one of the earliest stereo rock & roll albums that was actually superior to its mono equivalent. Indeed, Sings Lonely and Blue was among the first rock & roll LPs to attract the interest of serious audiophile enthusiasts.

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Roy Orbison - The Monument Album Collection (2015) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

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Roy Orbison - Crying (1962/2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time - 30:36 minutes | 713 MB
Studio Master, Official Digital Download | Artwork: Front cover

Roy Orbison's second album was above-average considering the slight standards of the time…In its favor, the album features nearly all original material by Orbison and some of the writers who frequently tailored songs for him, such as Boudleaux and Felice Bryant and Joe Melson. The trademark early Orbison production flourishes, with swooping strings and full vocal choruses, are also present…With the exception of "Love Hurts," the title track, and the epic hit "Running Scared," most of the cuts lean toward the Big O's more sentimental side…Of the obscure cuts here, the best are the uptempo "Nite Life" and "Let's Make a Memory," with its bouncing string arrangement.

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Roy Orbison - The Monument Album Collection (2015) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

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Roy Orbison - In Dreams (1963/2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time - 30:48 minutes | 696 MB
Studio Master, Official Digital Download | Artwork: Front cover

How does one recover enough to hear an album in its entirety when the first cut is "In Dreams"? Whoa! Roy Orbison's 1963 album of the same name, recorded for the Monument label, is devastating for a number of reasons, namely that his "Blue Bayou" and his readings of Johnny Mercer's "Dreams" and Stephen Foster's "Beautiful Dreamer" are here, as is his gorgeous reading of Cindy Walker's "Shahdaroba." Half of these cuts were recorded during the sessions for Sings Lonely and Blue, the other half in Nash Vegas in 1963 with Fred Foster producing both. The big difference on this set is the less intrusive presence of the Anita Kerr Singers. There are even more strings here, but they are relegated to a lesser place as well. Orbison's voice was never better than on this recording. The heights he reaches on the title cut, "Lonely Wine," the swaggering country and R&B of "Blue Avenue," and "My Prayer" are simply mind-blowing. The emotion and deep atmospherics of the tunes here reflect Foster's sophistication, but also Orbison's willingness to develop himself as a singer and as a persona. Orbison wrote or co-wrote four tracks this time out, but the song choices are impeccable. In addition to the original album being wonderfully remastered, the Legacy reissue contains four bonus cuts. These include a woolly read of "Mean Woman Blues," simpatico versions of Cindy Walker's "Distant Drum" and Willie Nelson's "Pretty Paper," and his own beautiful "Falling".

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Roy Orbison - The Monument Album Collection (2015) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

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Roy Orbison - Oh! Pretty Woman (1964/2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time - 34:01 minutes | 781 MB
Studio Master, Official Digital Download | Artwork: Front cover

This is what would have been Roy's fourth Monument album: Oh! Pretty Woman, the missing Monument masterpiece. Made up of songs recorded late in his Monument career and carefully selected by Roy's boys — his sons Wesley, Roy Kelton, and Alex Orbison — this album features specially created artwork so that it looks just as it would have in 1964, had Roy not left Monument. Some songs have made their way onto hits compilations, like the title track "Oh, Pretty Woman" and "It's Over". The haunting "It's Over" (1964, No. 9 pop) spoke of golden days before they end. It winds up to an Orbison crescendo that reminds you that you are on the edge of your seat, knowing not how you got there. "Oh, Pretty Woman" (No. 1 pop): the smash of all smash hits. It entered the charts twice in 1964 and garnered Roy international superstardom and a million dollar contract with another label, thus ending a magical time, with magical people, making magical music at Monument.