Gladys Knight & the Pips
Love Songs
(Buddah/Legacy)
First Appeared in The Music Box, February 2005, Volume 12, #2
Written by John Metzger
In 1961, Gladys Knight & the Pips scored its first Top Ten single with
Every Beat of My Heart, but despite this early success, it wasn’t until the
mid-’70s when the group, however briefly, became a superstar ensemble. Although
the recent compilation Love Songs focuses upon this latter era — and, in
the process, completely forsakes the group’s classic Motown moments — the result
is still a middling collection of songs. The biggest problem is that on many of
the album’s 14 tracks, Knight’s glorious, gospel-infused vocals (as well as the
smooth, tight-knit harmonies of her backing band) are engulfed by lightweight,
and increasingly overwrought, string-and-horn-adorned arrangements. True, there
is no denying the power of her presentation, and just as it has been throughout
the entirety of her career, every utterance she makes contains a wealth of
emotion that conveys far more than the often banal, but undoubtedly heartfelt,
sentiments of the lyrics with which she typically has been saddled. Therefore,
it’s not surprising that her triumphs and failures are tied closely to the
significance of the material she has opted to cover. Simply put, her rendition
of Curtis Mayfield’s The Makings of You works; her spin on a pair of
torpid Ashford & Simpson ballads (Still Such a Thing and A Friend of
Mine) does not. Perhaps the biggest surprise is the manner in which, after
sinking deeply into the muck of Barry Manilow’s maudlin ballad All the Time,
she brilliantly turns the tune into something special, elevating it entirely via
her ardent delivery. Even so, the highlight of the set is the utterly
magnificent gem Midnight Train to Georgia, which effortlessly torpedoes
the rest of Love Songs’s easy-listening soul and blows its mawkish
musings right out of the water. 
Love Songs is available
from Barnes & Noble. To order, Click Here!
Ratings
1 Star: Pitiful
2 Stars: Listenable
3 Stars: Respectable
4 Stars: Excellent
5 Stars: Can't Live Without It!!
Copyright © 2005 The Music Box