Phenomenal music, but track timing is off on several CDs

Frank Sinatra's recordings for Capitol represent the pinnacle of his career and, arguably, 20th Century American music. This set is a phenomenal reproduction of those recordings, and it preserves the integrity of Sinatra's concept albums.

However, the track timing is off on some of the CDs in the set (the "Where Are You" album is probably the most glaring example). Specifically, on a number of the CDs, if you decide you want to go straight to a track in the middle of the CD (say, song number 5), you will find that the song is already in progress by a couple of seconds even though the counter indicates that it is at the beginning of the song ("00:00").

If you always listen to every CD from beginning to end, then this is not a consideration. However, if you should ever want to skip to a track in the middle, you would actually have to press the rapid rewind button to the negative numbers right before "00:00" in order to hear the entire song. This is frustrating, to put it mildly, especially given the price of the collection.

I was quite disappointed when I contacted the manufacturer/distributor (EMI International) to tell them about the problem and they told me that it couldn't possibly be a flaw in their manufacturing and therefore must have been caused by Amazon's shipping or my handling. While this seemed completely implausible and I was almost certain EMI International was simply passing the buck, I asked Amazon for a replacement copy just to make sure. The replacement copy had the exact same problems, so the problems are clearly on the manufacturing side. A rather disingenuous position for EMI International to take, I would say.

To be clear, I still would recommend this set (I kept the replacement copy), as the music is phenomenal and the sound reproduction superb. You can easily listen straight through each CD from beginning to end with no issue. But this problem with the track timing does subtract noticeably from the overall enjoyment.

Sinatra Capitol Years Box Set (British import)

This box set of 21 CDs is simply marvelous; it is a CD re-issue of the 1984 20 LP vinyl album set of the same name but with the addition of "The Rare Sinatra", which appears for the first time on CD and with added tracks. To me, this 21 CD set is more complete than "Concepts", since it also includes the releases "This is Sinatra" and "This is Sinatra, Vol. 2" as well as other titles not available in the USA. The sound is identical to the LP versions, since they used the same masters. The track "Mr. Success" on "Sinatra Sings Of Love And Things" sounds a little "echo-ey" on both the LP and CD. If you want a COMPLETE discography of Sinatra on Capitol, then by all means buy this box set from England, and then supplement it with: "The Complete Capitol Singles Collection", "A Jolly Christmas from Frank Sinatra", and also from Amazon.com there is an Austrialian import of 3 CDs which comprise the soundtracks to "High Society/Pal Joey/Can-Can". That should be the entire Capitol catalog as recorded by Sinatra. Others have written about the Sinatra/Nelson Riddle partnership and how it influenced popular singing and arranging so I won't go into that here. True fans of Sinatra would also own the 20 CD "Complete Reprise Recordings" also known as the "suitcase", the 12 CD "Columbia Years 1943-1952" in the "blue-box", the 2 CD "V-Discs", the 5 CD "Sinatra-Dorsey", and the 1 CD with Harry James. All these would be the entire Sinatra studio recordings from 1939 to 1988. There are others as well: "Sinatra Conducts the Music of Alec Wilder", "Sinatra Conducts Tone Poems of Color", and "Sinatra Conducts Music from Pictures and Plays", which has yet to be issued on CD, but none of these have Sinatra vocals. I hope this has answered any questions about the British Capitol release.