How to approach such a totemic music giant as Aretha Franklin and still sound respectful?
Even more importantly, how to listen her music not from the point of view of what's catchy & radio friendly, but to actually understand where she is right now as an artist and what were her ideas/motivations? Sure, we are all familiar with her classic 1960s work but she has moved on. To say anything negative or to nit-pick at the choices would just show ignorance of reviewer - this was something that I lived trough right after my high school, when very first journalist assignment I got was to review her than-current album "Trough the Storm" which was weak, so I got it printed for everybody to see that emperor was naked.
"So Damn Happy" is a late-career Aretha album, which means hoards of modern, current producers and celebrity names (Mary J. Blidge) surrounding that famous voice with hip, trendy music palette: its all very slow-grinding, sexy, seductive and kind of anonymous. It is interesting that such a veteran artist still shows genuine interest to stay current instead of wallowing in the past as she could easily have done, unfortunately current black music is neither very interesting or original - sounds like there material is basically snippets of ideas around which Aretha improvises her celebrated melismas. It is not by any stretch bad or tragic, there is still occasional thrilling moment or two ("Wonderful", "Everybody's Somebody's Fool") which probably relies more on listener's affection for lady than songwriting. Just like I noted when I first reviewed Aretha some 25 years ago, she is best on her own material (two songs here) which puts the question why she simply don't leave this army of people behind and do her own thing, because she surely is more than capable.
Yes, let's face the unavoidable question. At age of 60+ voice is not what it used to be. Sure, it is not physically possible to sound as she once has in the days of Jerry Wexler but only passionate fans blinded by adoration can deny that the once magical instrument is now slightly frayed around the edges. In other words, Franklin now sounds actually shrill. Its unrealistic to expect she could ever repeat wonderment & passion of those classic albums,which probably means we should stick to them and leave this later-day work for collectors and fans. The best thing I can say about this album is that there is nothing really embarrassing or compromising here, her attitude is ballsy and dignified. But this is the first time that on Aretha album I like backing vocals better than hers.
Aretha Franklin Sings The Great Diva Classics (2014)
Clive Davis steps in and suggest one of his well-proved marketing tricks, a cover album.
Strange idea, considering that Aretha famously never showed any love for other female artists (except for Dinah Washington whose "Teach Me Tonight" she does with great affection) and to me this looks more like challenging "carving" that 1920s blues queens used to do to each other. You see, when legendary Bessie Smith felt like it, she would cover another girl's hit song just to show how it was supposed to be done. The album seriously lacks the focus, meandering trough decades and going all over the place - instead of paying homage to particular generation that inspired her, Aretha picks them out of the hat, but than her choices or covers were always unpredictable (after all, this is woman who loved singing Al Jolson, Doris Day and Judy Garland) so considering this, "People" fits somehow in the picture much better than cover of Adele that looks like gimmick to me. (By the way, no, I don't think she does it better than original). Come to think, I actually like her for this. Franklinized covers are often triumphant. (Or eccentric - see "Nothing Compares 2 U".)
Good thing is that lady sounds genuinely energised and jubilant, more than she had in a long time. Bad thing is that the album came a bit too late and no amount of electronics can hide the fact that spirit is this time stronger than celebrated instrument. She was deservedly a pioneer and ice-breaker some four decades ago but I would not go so far to say that she is best voice around anymore. On the other hand, "Teach Me Tonight" hints that subdued, late-night jazz covers might be just the right thing to do because she clearly puts her heart and soul in music like this. Knowing Clive Davis, this is probably what he already has in mind.
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