Luther Vandross is quite simply one of the finest singers in
\npopular music today. You would be hard pressed to find another
\nsinger with such a sweet, expressive, soulful voice, especially in
\nthe adult contemporary genre as it stands where the histrionic
\nover-the-top singing of Whitney Houston is preferred. On his 1996
\nrelease,
\nYour Secret Love<\/i>, Vandross, definitely a pro at this point,
\nhas created a well-crafted album that should please fans. However,
\nhe has also created an album that fails to avoid some of the
\npitfalls and flaws found in many adult contemporary releases.<\/p>\n
Vandross, who also produced
\nYour Secret Love<\/i>, wisely starts off with the winning title
\ntrack. He needed a strong single to follow up 1994’s “The Power Of
\nLove” and he got it here on this midtempo ballad. Vandross’ singing
\nexpresses effectively the apprehension of being the other man in a
\nsecret relationship. His singing shines again on the winsome ballad
\n“It’s Hard For Me To Say” about a guy too shy to express his
\nlove.<\/p>\n
“I Can’t Wait No Longer (Let’s Do This)” is probably the most
\ntalked about song on this collection because he duets with rapper
\nDeidra “Spin” Roper of the group Salt N’ Pepa. This playful track
\nadds a needed contemporary touch to the album. If you think this
\ncombination is as absurd as Metallica working with Marianne
\nFaithful, don’t forget that Vandross is not only a ballad singer
\nbut can sing R&B as well, and here his singing does compliment
\nRoper’s rapping.<\/p>\n
But Vandross’ forte is his interpretation of other people’s
\nsongs, so it is no surprise that this album boasts two inspired
\ncovers. He tackles the little known Stevie Wonder tune “Knocks Me
\nOff My Feet” and revives the old standard “Goin’ Out Of My Head”
\nmaking both of them his own. Nat Adderley Jr.’s arrangements
\ncompliment these songs with a light jazz feel. “Crazy Love” (not
\nthe Van Morrison song, but written by a group of songwriters) is
\none of those show-stopping type of ballads that Vandross sings the
\nheck out of without sucking the life from it.<\/p>\n
But now here are the pitfalls: the second single “I Can Make It
\nBetter” is an uptempo number with very little life to it. And “Love
\nDon’t Love Here Anymore” and “Too Proud To Beg” are good titles but
\nare uninspired, by the book type ballads. Then there are “Nobody To
\nLove”, “Whether Or Not The World Gets Better”, and “This Time I’m
\nRight” which are nice songs individually, but they all have very
\nsimilar melodies and unfortunately are sequenced together.<\/p>\n
And here lies the problem with
\nYour Secret Love<\/i>: Vandross is a better singer than
\nsongwriter, but here he has written, at least in part, eight of the
\ntwelve selections. Sure, some of his songs are very good, but he
\ndoes not have enough of those to fill an album. Nevertheless, if
\nYour Secret Love<\/i> isn’t exactly a masterpiece, it is a
\npleasant listen. Vandross once again has turned in a masterful
\nperformance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":28026,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7589],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-39419","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-luther-vandross","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39419\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39419"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}