Barbra Streisand: Songbird : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Barbra Streisand's weakest album since Butterfly is a collection of mainly second-rate songs that she rides herd over with some of the most shrilly indifferent interpretations of her career. The apparent reason for the LP's artistic failure is the hit-single mentality behind the production and choice of material. But while tunes like "One More Night" and "Stay Away" have obvious melodic hooks, each lacks a continuous hook with an inevitable climax like that of her last big 45, "My Heart Belongs to Me."

Gary Klein, who produced that record and the album from which it came in the glossiest MOR style, pours on even more schlock this time, wasting the talents of a score of top session players and arrangers in settings so overblown they literally point out the flimsiness of the songs. Soaring above the sludge, Streisand's steely soprano has seldom sounded so histrionically detached. Songbird's nadir is "Love Breakdown," a lugubrious slice of pop-disco. The LP's highlight is a passable version of Charles Strouse's and Martin Charnin's "Tomorrow," from the Broadway musical, Annie. The cover art is devoted to photos of Streisand with her dogs.