Welsh poet George Herbert said, \u201cLiving well is the best revenge.\u201d He could have been referring to Vanessa Williams. Crowned the first Black Miss America in 1984, she had her crown and her early career snatched away from her when nude pictures surfaced in Penthouse<\/i>. This was the Reagan era in which leaked nude pictures could potentially destroy a career (as opposed to actively helping a career as we see now)<\/p>\n
Williams herself said that the scandal and the fallout sucked out any ounce of credibility or talent that she built up to that point. But showbiz loves a good, old-fashioned comeback, and few stars managed a comeback like Vanessa Williams. Blessed with a stupendous beauty and a pitch-perfect voice, Williams managed to transcend the ignominy of her downfall and create a career of hit records, movie, television, and stage. <\/p>\n
The Comfort Zone<\/i> is the diva\u2019s sophomore album and her most successful. Though her 1988 debut The Right Stuff<\/i> went gold and spun off a string of hit singles (including her first top 10 hit, the creamy ballad \u201cDreamin\u2019\u201d), it\u2019s her second album that made her into a pop superstar. The Comfort Zone<\/i> is a collection of early 90s dance, light soul, and mainstream pop. Produced by an army of collaborators, most notably Keith Thomas, the album is state-of-the-art urban-pop that was made for radio play. <\/p>\n
The biggest single on the album \u2013 its centrepiece \u2013 is the grand ballad \u201cSave The Best For Last.\u201d It was a monster hit, ascending to the summit of the pop charts, and earning Williams a clutch of Grammy nominations. It\u2019s a syrupy, glossy ballad with a thick, dense production that just tips into lachrymose territory. Williams sounds gorgeous, her voice a warm, lustrous instrument, but the song is MOR balladry at its worst.<\/p>\n
Far more interesting are Williams\u2019 forays into dance diva territory. Though her voice was often squandered on schmaltzy ballads, she has a distinct and campy persona, and has a pleasing sullen quality when she sings club tunes. The title track is sexy and takes full advantage of Williams\u2019 considerable sultriness. Even better is the excellent \u201cRunning Back To You\u201d that has an appealing assertive performance from the singer. Her cover of the Isley Brothers\u2019 \u201cWork To Do\u201d is another fun track with light, sassy work by Williams. <\/p>\n
Though not hit singles, The Comfort Zone<\/i>\u2019s best songs are a pair of fast-paced dance pop songs: the brisk \u201c2 Of A Kind\u201d and the house number \u201cFreedom Dance (Get Free!).\u201d These songs allow for Williams to stretch her vocal muscles and eschew the doe-eyed ingenue persona she seems to lean on when she settles into one of her signature ballads. Sure, some of the production dates, that\u2019s seemingly unavoidable as most early \u201890s dance pop seems watermarked, but the songs are still lively and make the case that Williams should look to club music for her future. <\/p>\n
Most of the rest of The Comfort Zone<\/i> is comprised of tasteful, if slightly dull, pop ballads. All of the slow songs are impeccably produced and performed. They\u2019re spotless. But that\u2019s part of the problem. At the time that this album was released, Williams had yet to fully embrace the inherent campiness that would make her such a delightful and engaging performer later in her career. So her reverent singing \u2013 whilst technically perfect \u2013 was somewhat stultifying. One notable exception is \u201cWhat Will I Tell My Heart\u201d a jazz\/pop standard that predicted Williams\u2019 success as a Broadway diva; just like with the dance music, she seems to have an affinity for this kind of music because she throws herself into the performance, with insouciant vamping and passionate belting. The lean production also allows for Williams\u2019 rich, warm voice to shine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":93,"featured_media":34251,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[10615],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-46084","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-vanessa-williams","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46084","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\/93"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46084\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=46084"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=46084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}