Originally Posted by
reese
I bought Aretha's new cd and I love it. Even songs that I was iffy about like AT LAST sound much better than they did when I listened to the stream that she and Clive had at the Y a few weeks back.
In particular, I really like ROLLING IN THE DEEP, I'M EVERY WOMAN / RESPECT, YOU KEEP ME HANGIN' ON, TEACH ME TONIGHT, I WILL SURVIVE, and NOTHIN' COMPARES 2 U. Probably the only song I could do without is NO ONE, which in its original form I never much cared for anyway.
I do think that the instrumentation sometimes sounds a bit canned or programmed. I also don't feel that Aretha "inhabits" these remakes like she did her earlier ones, like RESPECT, BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATER, YOU SEND ME, and others, making them almost new. But back then, she was much more involved with the arrangements than she is now. Some of the keys could have been lowered to take advantage of Aretha's still rich lower register. But I find the cd far from the screeching mess that some have described on other sites. It was also nice to see that her old friend Cissy Houston sang background on many of the tracks.
Re packaging, there are some nice notes from David Nathan, as well as Aretha. I must admit that I wish some of the pictures had not been airbrushed so heavily. One photo is done so badly it looks as if Aretha's head was put on another person's body, which I don't believe it was. Recent albums by Dionne have suffered from the same issue.
All in all, it is a great album, and I hope is does well.
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