Respect (The Very Best Of Aretha Franklin) - Aretha Franklin

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1. RESPECT - fantastic, very well known, very camp.
2. THINK - classic, girl power-y, quite camp.
3. SPANISH HARLEM - jazz standard, good performance.
4. (YOU MAKE ME FEEL LIKE) A NATURAL WOMAN - great, incredibly camp, sing-a-long.
5. I SAY A LITTLE PRAYER - cheesy, very well known.
6. SON OF A PREACHER MAN - brilliant, famous, good for karaoke.
7. I NEVER LOVED A MAN (THE WAY I LOVE YOU) ...
...8. CHAIN OF FOOLS - another one about how crap men are, very sing-a-long.
9. DON'T PLAY THAT SONG (YOU LIED) - aren't men awful? Go girl!
10. ANGEL - very well known, soppier than many.
11. BORDER SONG (HOLY MOSES) - dramatic religious song with a bit of joy.
12. ROCK STEADY - cheese, but good cheese.
13. SEE SAW - good song about love being confusing and poo.
14. THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT - very well known, ... more

Now, you can all say what you like about Aretha Franklin, but I'm sure no-one will dare to deny the fact that the woman has an amazing voice, whether her music is your 'bag' or not.

Well, as I'm sure you've all gathered, Aretha's my bag. I've always been quite into soul music, but it's become a bit of an obsession in the last year or so, with me frequenting jazz and soul clubs and spending stupid amounts of money on CDs - including this one, a rather nice double CD of Aretha's "Greatest Hits" (honestly, when you've recorded as much as her, how can anyone choose the favourites?!).

The CD comes in a rather unattractive brown case, with one of those mystifying dust sleeve things, presumably to protect the case (from what exactly?), but just to waste cardboard in my opinion. But ignoring my silly opinions on card wastage, look for the CD with three sepia photos of our Aretha looking rather seductive on the front and you've got the right CD.

But you're not interested in the packaging, you want to know about the music, right? Well, if you like Aretha's brand of powerful soul, this will be right up your street, with big "camp-it-up-and-sing-along-at-the-top-of-your-lungs-whilst-prancing-around-your-bedroom-in-only-your-underwear-and-a-feather-boa" (What? It's just me that does that?) tracks such as 'Respect', 'Think', '(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman' and 'Son of a Preacher Man'.

There are far too many tracks on this album to give a thorough account of each and every one (unless you had your heart set on a detailed analysis of all 43 tracks, in which case I'll be happy to email you with one!), so here goes with an annotated track list - aren't I clever?!

CD 1

1. RESPECT - fantastic, very well known, very camp.
2. THINK - classic, girl power-y, quite camp.
3. SPANISH HARLEM - jazz standard, good performance.
4. (YOU MAKE ME FEEL LIKE) A NATURAL WOMAN - great, incredibly camp, sing-a-long.
5. I SAY A LITTLE PRAYER - cheesy, very well known.
6. SON OF A PREACHER MAN - brilliant, famous, good for karaoke.
7. I NEVER LOVED A MAN (THE WAY I LOVE YOU) - victimised woman song about useless men - yay!
8. CHAIN OF FOOLS - another one about how crap men are, very sing-a-long.
9. DON'T PLAY THAT SONG (YOU LIED) - aren't men awful? Go girl!
10. ANGEL - very well known, soppier than many.
11. BORDER SONG (HOLY MOSES) - dramatic religious song with a bit of joy.
12. ROCK STEADY - cheese, but good cheese.
13. SEE SAW - good song about love being confusing and poo.
14. THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT - very well known, bouncy and fun.
15. OH NO NOT MY BABY - men are bad, women are gullible.
16. UNTIL YOU COME BACK TO ME (THAT'S WHAT I'M GONNA DO) - I miss you. Come back.
17. GOOD TIMES - cheesy party music for getting drunk to.
18. SINCE YOU'VE BEEN GONE (SWEET SWEET BABY) - cheese deodorant drying music (you, know, when you bounce around flapping at armpits... or is that just me too?)
19. YOU'RE ALL I NEED TO GET BY - they're not bastards after all. They're all we need to get by.
20. AIN'T NOTHING LIKE THE REAL THING - love's wonderful. I love you. Ballad.
21. DO RIGHT WOMAN - DO RIGHT MAN - slow, with fun singy chorus.
22. SHARE YOUR LOVE WITH ME - slow, a bit dull for Aretha.
23. SOMETHING HE CAN FEEL - very easy to be immature about and act like a fool during the chorus.
24. AIN'T NO WAY - ballad, sung very sweetly. They're not bastards, just irritating. That's ok then.

CD 2

1. SISTERS ARE DOIN' IT FOR THEMSELVES (with Eurythmics) - nice bit of cheesy "I don't need a boyfriend" karaoke music.
2. I KNEW YOU WERE WAITING (FOR ME) (with George Michael) - good old-fashioned 80s cheese injection, their voices work incredibly well together.
3. THROUGH THE STORM (with Elton John) - more eighties cheese duet music. All good.
4. LOVE ALL THE HURT AWAY (with George Benson) - we're really going for eighties cheesy love duets aren't we, Aretha? Not as fun as the two previous ones.
5. WILLING TO FORGIVE - sounds a fair bit older in this 1994 track, a bit OTT on the cheese.
6. LET IT BE - so can't fault the material, a very different take to the Beatles, a good soul version.
7. NEVER LET ME GO - end of school disco track. Man, I want a slow dance NOW!
8. NIGHT TIME IS THE RIGHT TIME - is it really? Well, I've gotta agree with her there.
9. CALL ME - I love you, I love you, and I love you too - as you can see, inspirational lyrics. Well sung though.
10. DROWN IN MY OWN TEARS - ooh, what's that? They're all bastards? Slow, melancholy, about crying, involves every crying cliché in the book.
11. PEOPLE GET READY - another religious one, but not offensive to athiests, which is nice. Don't think I'd be allowed on the train, though.
12. MY SONG - is this the "sit down and cry" bit of the album or what? Another teary ballad.
13. DARK END OF THE STREET - good to drink wine to.
14. TODAY I SING THE BLUES - damn she's good at singing the blues, but does she have to do it so much?
15. A ROSE IS STILL A ROSE - finally! An upbeat number, produced by Lauryn Hill. You'll have heard it before, good to sing along to.
16. WHO'S ZOOMIN' WHO? - relatively harmless, if repetative, eighties cheese (again?)
17. FREEWAY OF LOVE - more upbeat cheesy synth-pop.
18. DAY DREAMING - she's in love again, and, er, day dreaming about him.
19. BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATER - you know it, but she labours it so much you might not realise. Yes, it's the Simon and Garfunkel one, but slower, and with a strange lack of singing...

So, all in all, a varied collection. Still, you have to expect someone who's had such a huge career as Aretha Franklin, which covered the eighties (bless her!) to have relased a couple of dodgy tracks. CD 1 is infinitely better in my opinion (and no, that's not just because I hate men and like dancing around in my underwear). And while there's some great tracks on the second CD, I can't help but think they've missed out some far superior songs and put more than a few "fillers" in.

Definitely one to add to your collection, but don't expect to enjoy all of the 43 tracks. The "All men are bastards" ones are better anyway...

Prices vary - usually around £15.99/£16.99

Louise
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