Seth MacFarlane comes out swinging on this touching collection of big-band standards

Hollywood funnyman Seth MacFarlane delivers a loving tribute to big-band-era pop. With exquisite arrangements inspired by Frank Sinatra’s mid-’50s output, the velvety crooner displays a keen understanding of swing music's frisky sense of romance. On the brassy “The Night They Invented Champagne”, his words flow as woozily as if he'd uncorked the bubbly right in the studio, and he plays a convincing anxious lover on the scampering "Nine O'Clock". Let's not forget the starry-eyed “Two Sleepy People”, in which Norah Jones' honeyed vocals drip with longing.