Description
“L-O-V-E” may be the single most joyous album Nat King Cole ever recorded. It may not be the deepest examination of love ever put on record, but it is nothing sort of exhilarating to listen to. Most of the tracks are the up-tempo swing he mastered in the late 1950s, and Cole is abetted here by arranger/conductor Ralph Carmichael, who very nearly matches the high level set by Nelson Riddle for vocal arrangements. The album mixes standards from the 1920s and 30s like “Three Little Words” and “Coquette” with then-popular hits like the title track, “More,” and “The Girl From Ipanema.” There are just enough ballads to keep things from boiling over, and the whole album swings even more than Cole’s records with Billy May.
