I Love You

Why on earth won't Clive Davis sign Miss Ross? This album would fit so nicely in his new routine of mining the classics for more seasoned stars. That being said, this is the lush, beautifully orchestrated, and adult-sounding album that we fans have been waiting for all these years! Yes, most of these are covers - but Diana gives all these tracks her own personal statement/investment and they all become distinctive and new again. I love the bookends of "Remember" - a melancholy tune that seems to set just the right tone. "More Today than Yesterday", if released as a single (although EMI has no plans for any single right now) could be a big, fun, retro hit a la "Why do Fools fall in Love." I am especially impressed by the jazzy/emotional range on several tracks such as "The Look of Love" and "What About Love." "I Love You" - the second original song - recalls many previous Diana classics while she manages to make "I Want You" (written by her brother) sound fresh and new again. The biggest surprise for me is "Always and Forever". In a word: gorgeous. The American version of the CD replaces "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" with "Take my breath Away". On this track, listen for her amazing harmonizing with herself in verse two! All in all, this is the album Diana Ross fans have craved for so long - and she delivers in fine style. Now, why can't we get more fanfare in this country? Here's hoping now that Miss Ross has switched labels for the US, the First Lady of Motown gets the homecoming she so richly deserves.

This time around with only a few miscalculations Diana Ross delivers an album worthy of the legendary musical history which she embodies. Even more poignantly, she recalls her own legendary musical history by way of allusions to her own illustrious body of work during the course of what may in fact be her last album. Diana picked numbers that range from moderately known to well-known for "I Love You" making it more interesting than the current crop of "remake" albums.The arrangements are zippy, on-point and for the most part with the exception of a few clunkers which are for the most part slower-tempo numbers - for which she is not necesarily fully culpable - indicative of the great interpreterthat is Diana Ross.That acknowledged, one minor glitch with "I Love You", is the appearance of a vibrato from Diana seldom before heard on her recordings. It is at play notably on the set and it is something that Diana's fans have to accept as her voice ages;luckily, it does not plague the set. Diana faces this problem on several tracks but it is kept in check and is not chronic largely because Diana likely has great control over her voice.Although it is a factor on the title cut, which, unlike the superbly camp "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" which sports musical elements reminding us of the spirit of the past glories "I'm Coming Out" and "There Goes My Baby", the composition "I Love You" is not sunk through any fault of Diana's vocal per se but by what Ross likely envisioned but ultimately will be indicted for which is the fact that this tribute to her musical legacy and to her fans is a doppelganger for, by no obvious coincidence, the title to this album's predecessor "Every Day is a New Day".She may as well have called the title cut to this set "Love is all That Matters 2".In the final analysis, the new "Love Matters" belabors the themes of Ross ballads from the past to the point of cliche where one wonders if Ross is about to burst out the "Barney I Love You You Love Me" anthem. Even "What About Love", the better of the two "new songs" shows Diana in fine emotive form, but cynicism still prevails among detractors considering prior statements made about her character added to newly founded cynicism prompting speculation that Diana recorded the song as a vehicle to promote the album on OPRAH since the song was yanked directly from Oprah's stage-production of "The Color Purple".However there is no denying the remarkable voice that is Diana Ross at age sixty-two. Her voice could not have been processed through multiple voiceboxes to sound this good. Diana's in fine form on "Lovely Day", the set's best cut which finds Jazz Chanteuse Julia Fordham's producer Larry Klein and producer Peter Asher layering Ross' vocals to dynamic effect in the chorus. Unfortunately the album has another producer: Steve Tyrell. Tyrell has produced for Rod Stewart on his latest abyssmal offerings as well as American Idol straggler John Stevens."To Be Loved" only reaffirms the great value of Diana's "So Close" from"Red Hot Rhythm and Blues". The curiosity is the fact that "So Close" can stand up to either one of the two 50s compositions producer Steve Tyrell tries his hand at but fails to make fresh; the only thing of value is Diana's delivery as the numbers plod along. He also fails "More Today than Yesterday" which is more karaoke although Diana's reference to "Every Day's a New Day", a line from both this classic and the title cut from Diana's last album,seems very clever and curious. If for nothing else, the song is great fun as it recalls Diana's mammoth "Chain Reaction".The most touching vocal on the album has to be Diana's take on Heatwave's "Always and Forever" - a fine touch to this time capsule. The track finds Ross reworking the original R & B template to fit more of a Pop landscape -- something for which those who would attack her abandoning R & B would not see the value in here although Peter Asher and Ross' choice show off her voice in breathtaking style. That is the one thing one comes away with and no one can take away from her.esoterrorca

I have been a Supremes fan since the first strains of "When the Lovelight Starts Shining in His Eyes." There was something about this group and the nicotine-soprano lead of Diane Ross that set them apart from all the other groups. This talented combination hit the stratosphere. But in this country what goes up must eventually come down and stories of tantrums, ego, love affairs with influential people, and diva-like behavior followed La Ross and eventually led to the downfall of that group. Mary struggled mightily to keep the group going and The Supremes came up with some major hits (Up The Ladder, Stoned Love, Floy Joy, Nathan Jones, River Deep Mountain High). However without Ross, Motown lost interest and the group died.Here is my point. The stories about Miss Ross may be true but she has to be irritated and upset about her and The Supremes treatment by the press and industry. Diana and the Supremes paved the way for all female rock acts that came after them. They "crossed" and in that journey brought many acts with them, not just from Motown. They also elevated the glamour of Afro-American women in a way that not had happened since Lena Horne. When I was a child, we waited with baited breath for every Supreme appearance on television, whether it be on Andy Williams, Ed Sullivan, or a Rodgers & Hart special with The Mamas and the Papas. At one time, only The Supremes, Lena Horne, Sammy Davis Jr. and the still brilliant Leslie Uggams were the only African-Americans seen regularly on television.The Supremes and Diana never got their true due. Besides the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame few honors have come their way and none during their heyday. They never won a Grammy or even a special Grammy for that matter. And during their tenure as the most successful female group of all time and only 2nd to the Beatles in popularity, they were constantly attacked. The critics said they were too "white", too made-up, too much. Yet they could sing a Rodgers and Hart Medley, sing several of their #1 hits, sing someone else's hits, do a tribute to Sam Cooke, do a Broadway medley and get a thunderous standing ovation. Without extra voices, dancers running around them, triple tracking or lipsynching, just three talented, beautiful ladies at the microphone. We will never see the likes of it again (Listen to Diana Ross and the Supremes Live at London's Talk of the Town).As for "I Love You." it is not her best album. Ashford and Simpson produced her best work. However, it is wonderful to hear that supreme voice not damaged by age or stimulants (take a listen to the latest Dionne Warwick duets ablum and you will know what I mean). She could have tried to do a hip hop album or even gone country, but she stuck to what she does best. I am not in love with some of the arrangements but considering she could not get a record deal in the states (I guess you have to be 23 to get one these days) and had to go to England to record it on very little money, that is a quibble. After 44 years to have Diana Ross sound like... well... like Diana Ross, is a joy.I believe that if anyone ever "really" says thank you to La Ross for what she has achieved and how she has paved the way for others who came behind her and The Supremes, she will go into a studio and come up with something from her heart that will be tremendous. The chops are still there. Until then..."I Love You" more than fills the bill.

カバー中心で、ちょっとダイアナロスの「らしさ」を見失いがちになるアルバム。言い換えればとてもユニーク。数多くのオリジナルアルバムを聴いている時ちょっと息抜きにちょうど良い、そんなイージーなアルバム。このように言うと、久々にリリースされた渾身の一枚だったかも知れない作品を冒涜するように見えるかも知れませんが、ダイアナロスをコレクションする中に一枚これが入ることはOKというのが感想になります。作品としては年齢を否定し得ないものの、いまだ健在なダイアナロスの歌唱力によって他の足りない部分がすべてカバーされていると言って過言ではなく、あのセクシーな高音部分をあまり聴けないのが不完全燃焼の理由で、減点1です。以下は音楽ファンなら理解してもらえるコメント：このアルバムはカバー曲を並べるにあたり、カーペンターズのイエスタディワンスモアのアルバム構成にヒントを得た、あるいは同じようなコンセプトを使った劇中劇的な造りという印象を持ちました。