Warwick, the classic interpreter of other people's songs, reveals a surprisingly good composition of her own, "Two Ships Passing in the Night." It resembles her old Burt Bacharach-Hal David hits, and Vandross knowingly produces it in that style, right down to the cymbal accents and cresting strings.
Much better is Vandross' "So Amazing," an exclamation of astonishment at love, which benefits from Warwick's dignified restraint as she slowly warms up to the glorious melody. Why then does Vandross try to turn her into an uptempo belter on "Got a Date," which Franklin could have knocked the stuffing out of, and "I Do It 'Cause I Like It," which Vandross himself could have gleefully exploited for all its bodiness? It's interesting to hear Warwick stretch her voice, but she never quite fills up these excellent Vandross compositions. Warwick can caress a midtempo melody with her breathy alto and peel off one thin layer of nuance after another. It's clear that he steered his best compositions to the project, even some songs that would have been more appropriate for "Busy Body" or Franklin's "Get It Right," which he also produced. Vandross had a dream come true when he produced "How Many Times Can We Say Goodbye" (Arista AL8-8104) for his childhood idol, Dionne Warwick. Yet these ballads tend to drift off into the romantic gauze of Vandross' confectionary production until they lose any sense of one person addressing another.
They showcase Vandross' enormous baritone, which is surprisingly agile as it improvises against the melody. The ballads include the title track and a remake of Stevie Wonder's "Until You Come Back to Me," which was a 1974 hit for Aretha Franklin. Unfortunately, the melodies never measure up, and the songs sound incomplete. The three dance cuts-including the first single, "I'll Let You Slide"-were cowritten and coproduced by bassist Marcus Miller, who gives them percolating rhythm riffs. On "Busy Body" the producer and singer are as sophisticated and creative as ever it's the songwriter who falls down. These albums worked because Vandross the songwriter gave Vandross the producer and Vandross the singer substantial melodies and defined feelings to work with. When this approach clicks-as it did on his first two solo albums-it produces some of the most exhilarating love songs this side of Smokey Robinson. He has produced albums by Franklin and Warwick, has worked with Ross, Flack and the Shirelles, and has applied the same formulas to his own three solo albums. He has dedicated himself to combining their big-hearted, big-voiced approach to the love song with the sharp, powerful rhythm tracks of the '80s. He has never lost his adolescent enthusiasm for the great female soul singers of the '60s: Aretha Franklin, Dionne Warwick, Diana Ross, Roberta Flack and the Shirelles. The songs sound like a bunch of verses waiting for a chorus to redeem them.įew people have devoted themselves to love songs as completely and successfully as Vandross, who comes to the Capital Centre March 13.
His five original tunes are a collection of moods and riffs without any clear-cut hooks or statements to give them shape. Luther Vandross, soul music's reigning authority on love songs, seems to have forgotten this on his new album, "Busy Body" (Epic FE 39196). LOVE PRODUCES a certain mood, but it is not itself a mood.