What You See Is What You Sweat

by

Aretha Franklin

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The fact that this album was not laden with duets makes it worth your while. There's only two -- the mediocre "Doctor's Orders" with Luther Vandross and the timeless "Ever Changing Times" with Michael McDonald. That compares with FOUR duets from the album prior to this one. The other cuts are 100% Aretha, doing all of the vocal acrobatics and imparting the passion you'd expect from the Queen.

The only reason I give this album 4 stars instead of 5 is because she's not quite in top voice. This album is recorded a couple years before she gave up the smokes. She sounds a little raspy on some cuts and out of breath on others, with her upper range sounding quite gritty. However, Aretha "not in top voice" is still way better than a lot of the "divas" we have to choose from today.

The main point is whether or not Ree puts her heart into it. She does. "I Dreamed A Dream" was performed for the President at the 1993 Inaugural Convention, and this earlier studio version almost captures that magic. "Everyday People," especially the remix by Shep Pettibone, is the best of early 90's R&B/soul. "What Did You Give," an original Aretha composition, is a great song, as are her Mayfield-like "You Can't Take Me For Granted" that she also penned and the super-90's title track.

This CD is a good sample of R&B/soul from 1991, well-produced and enjoyable. The fact that Ree is the center of what's going on makes it all the more worth buying. Enjoy.

This is one of those albums that Aretha Franklin would probably like to forget. I remember being very excited about its release after seeing her on the Donahue program, but was not altogether pleased with the results. It's not all bad, but I wondered at the time, why include such drivel as "Mary Goes Round"? In cases when you run out of material, why not reach back and choose a GOOD song that never was a big hit and re-work the HELL out of it?

This was during Aretha's "duet era" when she dragged in other artists as a distraction to shield the fact that her material was lacking. Was it REALLY necessary to rekindle "Everyday People"? Sly and the Family Stone had had the very last word with that one. Wouldn't it be ludicrous for one of today's "artists" to suddenly decide to record "Respect"?

"Ever Changing Times" with Michael McDonald was okay, but after a few listenings, tiring. Aretha was nominated for a Grammy for "What You See Is What You Sweat" when "Someone Else's Eyes" would have been a much better choice (and possible win for her). I saw Aretha perform it in Atlantic City (Caesar's Palace) and she turned it out, with strong support from her "girls."

"Doctor's Orders" with Luther Vandross was adroitly performed, but what a missed opportunity! Here you had the great Aretha Franklin and possibly the top male balladeer in the biz (at the time) and they chose a trite, near novelty tune as their historical pairing.

Franklin's "You Can't Take Me For Granted" was a nice ballad with excellent background vocals and "I Dreamed a Dream" from "Le Mis" could have employed a more complimentary arrangement. Aretha performed it better in "live" performance.

Believe me, Aretha has done worse than this. Her "Through The Storm" was a piece-job that even I (a staunch fan forever) was left shaking my head in disbelief. I questioned, "is this the BEST they can come up with for someone of Aretha's calibre?"

Why Aretha hasn't taken the advice of millions of her fans and just sat down at the piano and sang an entire album, without an orchestra (ala Steve Ross, Bobby Short or Michael Feinstein), is beyond me. There are so many great standards we'd like to hear her "Aretharize." We were all wishing she'd do that during her greatest singing days, but record companies can only think "commercial." Judging from most of her 80s output, she could have used "a change."

At least The Queen was using her natural voice on these cuts. Today, she's singing in a weird falsetto, probably because of her unfortunate weight gain after stopping smoking. Here's hoping she can get back down to her "singing weight" and give us the greatness we expect from The Queen of Soul.