Album Reviews
View
The queen of soul is still the Queen. But that doesn't mean the material on Aretha Franklin's latest album is deserving of her crown. Last time around, on 1998's A Rose Is Still a Rose, Lauryn Hill, Puff Daddy and other hot hitmakers plied fresh beats and old-school samples to aim Aretha's R&B at young ears. Here, Mary J. Blige appears on and co-writes two of the hipper tracks, "Holdin' On" and "No Matter What," but both come up short in the melody, hook and rhythm departments, and those deficits afflict much of the rest. Ten different producers replace Rose's hip-hop energy with an adult-contemporary slickness that sometimes makes the sixty-one-year-old legend's voice seem shrill. Her Highness deserves more r-e-s-p-e-c-t than this.
Share
Email
Stumble
AIM
Del.icio.us
DiggThis
Fark It!
Advertisement
News and Reviews
Advertisement
Your Turn
Advertisement
More CD Reviews
-
Them Crooked Vultures
Them Crooked Vultures -
Weezer
Raditude -
The Rolling Stones
Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out! The Rolling Stones in Concert – 40th Anniversary Deluxe Box Set -
Nirvana
Bleach (Deluxe Edition) -
Various Artists
Original Motion Picture Soundtrack The Twilight Saga: New Moon -
Wolfmother
Cosmic Egg -
Tegan and Sara
Sainthood -
Julian Casablancas
Phrazes For The Young -
U2
The Unforgettable Fire (Deluxe Reissue) -
R.E.M.
Live At The Olympia
Everything:Aretha Franklin
Main Biography From the Archives Album Reviews Photo Gallery Videos Discography
©RealNetworks, Inc. All rights reserved.
©Copyright 2009 Rolling Stone; Jann S. Wenner, editor and publisher
- Portions of Album Content Provided by All Music Guide © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC.
Get RS Mobile
RSS
