Fairly obscured by her later discography, this early Donna Summer album is in fact quite a masterpiece and it took me years to realise it. For most of us, it all really starts few years later with "I Feel Love" when she entered her golden period of multi-platinum, best-selling double LP albums but its worth noting that path to this particular creative heights actually began much earlier.
Initially, "A Love Trilogy" appears as a rushed attempt to follow up "Love to love you baby" smash that put Summer on a map - same idea, one long song stretched trough side A and some filler on side B, with young singer whispering and moaning in her calculated falsetto, gimmicky aural titillation that worked a year ago but it suggest certain lack of new ideas. Luckily, Summer was not one trick pony - she might carefully follow instructions of Giorgio Moroder but given the right chance she would show much more versatility. I have listened "A Love Trilogy" this morning and surprised myself how much I enjoyed it, even boogied a little around, laughing at myself - seems that this old school Disco, with its swirling strings and cheesy synthesisers still have magic and power, campy as it is. The highlight, surprisingly, is not never-ending "Try me, I know, we can make it" but Summer's fantastic take on "Could It Be Magic" which is definition of Disco glitz. Yes, she moans and coos again but its all done with wink and tongue-in-cheek, its all about having fun. Interesting thing about this particular song is how Summer starts singing it in breathy falsetto but eventually explode in full throaty voice we all later associated with her. It is little forgotten now, but everybody from Esther Phillips to Dionne Warwick followed her example and started moaning on their recordings from same era.
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