Diana Ross – I Love You (2006/CD)

 

Sound: B-     Music: C

 

 

From 1970 when she left The Supremes to 1984 when she peaked in her record contract at RCA Records after leaving Motown, Diana Ross had far more hits than misses and when she was on top, she seemed unstoppable.  The solo years already extended what was an amazing set of hits, sales and unmatched singles on the Pop and Soul charts, but Michael Jackson and Tina Turner were the two acts that finally overtook her after Missing You was her last big hit.

 

Since then, she has struggled with albums that should have been better (Eaten Alive) and hits (Dirty Looks, Shine, Force Behind The Power) that could have worked if they had more oomph to them.  At one point, she said she had her hits, then seems to have regretted that later trying to make a comeback ever since.  After an ill-advised remake of I Will Survive did not survive on the charts, she has returned with a new album at a new label for her (EMI Manhattan, who has not had a commercial artist we could think of since Grace Jones) with a covers album called I Love You.

 

If it worked for Barry Manilow, Michael McDonald and Rod Stewart, why not her?  Well, it may have worked commercially for them, but their albums were really not that good and hers is no better.  In what seems like a throw royalty money at anything that people might want to hear revived, the 15 tracks include such diverse hits as More Today Than Yesterday (Spiral Staircase, 1969), I Want You (Marvin Gaye), The Look Of Love (1967 Bacharach/David classic), Take My Breath Away (Berlin), Lovely Day (Bill Withers, 1978), Only You (The Platters, 1955), To Be Loved (Jackie Wilson, 1958), I Will (Lennon/McCartney), This Magic Moment (Drifters, 1960), You Are So Beautiful (Joe Cocker, 1975) and Always & Forever (Heatwave, 1978).

 

As you listen, you realize that while some are adequate, all seem pre-calculated to make you say “oh, that’s nice” or something as stupid.  One also is sooner or later made to think “hey, didn’t she have some good hits when that came out?”  It is ultimately even bizarre.  Can’t she sing her own songs anymore?  Are they not good enough?  The lack of energy is also sad with the songs being far from definitive when they are not unintentionally funny.  They are so thrown together that bookending them with Remember and Remember Reprise seems very desperate.  We’ll be surprised if this is a hit.  We just hope there will be no sequel!

 

The PCM 2.0 16/44.1 Stereo is fairly good, but not as clear and dynamic as her recordings typically have been.  Back with the 1983 album Ross (RCA version), she was one of the first music artists to record in then-new digital technology, but that did not help the album become a hit.  Still, it was more memorable and sonically interesting than this competent, corporate rehash.  She has done much better and has never played it so safe before.  That is why it does not ultimately work.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo