Those Were Our Songs: Music of World War II

World War II and -era compilations are released almost as regularly as albums, and the glut has caused more harm than good; it seems any good ones are quickly swallowed up by the racks full of short, ill-advised, uninformative collections. Though any single label could never do justice to the war years, with a little clever licensing the compilation transcends its slightly simpy title to deliver 40 great tracks of traditional . Most of the standards of the day are included: by , , and (with ), though there's no , except for his appearance on . More than any other label, captured the can-do attitude of America during the early '40s, with a spate of classic songs poised halfway between and , songs like 's ' Add the great liner notes of stands as one of the best -- and easily the best-sounding, courtesy of astonishing 24-bit remastering -- compilations of its era: just this side of definitive, but packed full of great music summoning the sound and feel of a nation at war. ~ John Bush