This is late-career Evans, recorded three years before his 1980 death and not released on LP until 1981. The original seven tracks are wistful, and the three bonus selections are more upbeat, which is a nice way to end the disc. I don't know if Evans had any influence on choosing the title, but it kind of contradicts the mood of the album. This effort has two compositions by Evans himself, one reflecting on the suicide of his ex-girlfriend, the other on the suicide of his brother. And then he does a neat five-minutes-plus dissection of the theme from M*A*S*H, commonly known as "Suicide is Painless." But we all know that it is not. There is a lot of quiet beauty here, and if you already like Evans, you should have this one. However, I think a better starter kit would be "Sunday at the Village Vanguard" and "Waltz for Debbie", both from 1961, and "The Best of Bill Evans on Verve" which covers the later 1960's. Mr. Evans had much trouble in his life, some of it due to his own heroin and coc*ine dependencies, but he made beautiful recordings for nearly 25 years before his death at age 51. Every self-described jazz fan should get to know his work. A tribute poem by Bill Zavatsky is included in this CD booklet, and its first two lines are true, addressed to the recently deceased pianist: "Music your hands are no longer here to make/Still breaks against my ear, still shakes my heart." One wonders why so many artists, singers, musicians and actors whose work makes us ordinary folks happy had lives of quiet, or not so quiet, desperation.