LOL Right!
It's not often that we hear Diana in such a low place, but she plays the part well. [[It may have even fit her relationship with Gordy.) I wish the album didn't end with "All the Befores". It might have been interesting for the album to have a concept direction moving along with the tracklist. Now as best as I could, I have tried to give the album that direction, although it turned out to be a bit more difficult than I anticipated. Surely, had A&S had a direction in mind some songs would've been scrapped and replaced with more appropriate cuts. But here goes:
"I'll Settle For You" opens the show. Diana is still in the good phase of the relationship, though one might ponder the fact that she's "settling" for him. Next is
"Surrender", and shit has gone south. She's feeling like he's withholding love. She's pacing the floor at night because his ass is out doing who knows what. She's crying. She's begging. He's used and abused her, so much so that she has felt like death is a better option. She demands he get his shit together. So while she's clearly in the midst of a horrible relationship, she still has some fight left.
"I Can't Give Back the Love" finds that dude still won't act right, and so now she's left [[or kicked him out), but she is still hung up on him.
"And If You See Him" finds her so emotionally spent that she's placing all of the blame upon herself and is begging him to come back. Apparently he comes back but now his shenanigans are so unashamed that he's attending media spectacles with the other woman in
"Did You Read the Morning Paper". So now she leaves again, except she's so beaten down that she returns once again in
"All the Befores", even while fully recognizing that she's in the worst relationship, but love is a helluva drug. Of course nothing changes, and the next time he hits her in the heart it hurts so bad that she can't even muster up the tears in
"A Simple Thing Like Cry". But everyone has their bottom, and Diana finally has reached hers with
"Remember Me". She takes the high road wishing this asshole the very best, while subtly reminding him of what he has lost. Sometime has passed and she runs into dude only to find that he now knows the pain of heartache in
"Didn't You Know You'd Have To Cry Sometime". Everything he did to her, someone is doing to him. She walks away from that encounter singing her favorite Martha Reeves and the Vandellas song [[
),
"I'm A Winner" as she meets up with her current dude.
The one song that gave me the most trouble was "Reach Out I'll Be There". I considered placing it after "Remember Me" as the moment where she falls for someone again, but it didn't feel as right as some of the other placements.
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