Barbra Streisand: Wet : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Wet's gimmick is that all its songs are about moisture. Four deal with rain, two with tears, one with bath water, etc. Though the idea is clever, Barbra Streisand squanders it on mostly second-rate material. Indeed, the LP's only standard is Johnny Mercer and Harold Arlen's "Come Rain or Come Shine." While Streisand's singing is very uneven (her revival of Bobby Darin's "Splish Splash" is a hysterical fiasco), her high-strung renditions of "Wet" and "After the Rain," backed by Lee Holdridge's gorgeous arrangements, are tiny triumphs of schlock.

As with every album she's cut since Lazy Afternoon, Streisand's taste is undermined by her trendiness, and "No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)," her famous duet with Donna Summer, is about as low a piece of camp as she's ever recorded. This disco novelty by Paul Jabara and Bruce Roberts, the same team that gave us the execrable "Theme from The Main Event," suggests a new dimension to the word, back. Though a hit, the current tune's cynical condescension to the mass market compromises the reputations of everyone involved–and adds more than a touch of slime to the overall sogginess.