Ballads was John Coltrane's second Impulse! album — but the first to focus entirely on ballads

Following 1962’s self-titled Coltrane, this one did something different by sticking purely to ballads — his second Impulse! studio album, but the first to commit to a single mood throughout. It reveals the quiet side of a famously intense player, proof that restraint can hit as hard as a full-throated roar.