Hotcakes holds up well and represents an intelligent approach to commercial record making. Her past albums were serious-sounding with playful overtones; Hotcakes is playful-sounding with some serious overtones — a balance that best suits her for the time being. But lest she is mistakenly stereotyped as a mere light artist, "Think I'm Gonna Have a Baby," "Forever My Love" and especially "Haven't Got Time for the Pain" are substantial songs and performances, superior to almost everything else she has so far recorded. A provocative record, Hotcakes leaves me wondering where she will go next.

“He Will Break Your Heart”

A lightly swinging Latin-influenced, almost cha-cha groove and close harmonies decorated Jerry Butler's early soul hit "He Will Break Your Heart," delivering a stately warning that his rival would never love his girl like he did. The melody came to Butler as he was driving on the highway from Atlantic City, New Jersey, to Philadelphia with Curtis Mayfield, and as Butler told Rolling Stone, "I just sang the melody and Curtis put the chords to it." The song's premise, Butler added, "was something that I'd lived ...The lyric was an experience rather than a revelation. Whereas music is usually a revelation."