The Sweetest Days

by

Vanessa Williams

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Vanessa Williams' name conjures up a few different images. Miss America, timeless beauty, pop chanteuse, broadway diva or respected actress. Vanessa has worn so many hats that it doesn't come as a surprise that she has explored a myriad of musical styles in her recording career. Although her first two albums were paint by numbers R&B/pop collections that did pretty well on the charts, they did show some signs that the Divine Miss W had more to offer (including the brilliant rendition of What Can I Tell My Heart from the Comfort Zone album). The Sweetest Days if probably the closest Vanessa has come to showing the many different sides of her personality and the range of her talent. This collection is classy, urbane and extremely listenable. Vanessa never oversings or overreaches and truly found her "comfort zone". The standouts on this collection are the two Babyface compostions "You Can't Run" and Betcha Never. These songs both use a brazillian jazz theme and choose instrumentation that allows Vanessa to ride the groove instead of being overpowered by it. Vanessa also tackles You Don't Have To Say You're Sorry (by the criminally underated Patti Austin) with great success. Other great numbers are Sting's Sister Moon, Higher Ground (redone by Barbara Streisand in 1998) and one of Vanessa's greatest vocal performances, Constantly. A superb collection that I highly recommend.