Diana Ross: diana - 1980
After three acceptable but treading water albums, came diana, titled with a lower case "d". For this album Ross hired Chic producers Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards to give her a more contemporary, Studio 54-style sound.
The results were certainly impressive - now iconic disco hit singles like Upside Down, I'm Coming Out and the quirkily appealing My Old Piano were everywhere at the time and have retained their popularity. Even album tracks like the catchy groove of Tenderness, the excellent Give Up and Have Fun (Again) follow the same formula.
There is one lone a ballad on the album in Friend To Friend and Now That You're Gone is a slowie but very much a deep, attractively bassy one and stands as one of the album's best cuts. Gone are the strings from previous albums and in come Rodgers' distinctively strummed Chic guitar. Apparently Ross was not happy with the first recordings of the album, feeling that there were too many extended disco instrumental parts and that this would not go down well at the time of "disco sucks", so she had it re-recorded without telling Rodgers and Edwards who then refused to put their name to it.
Eventually, a compromise was reached and we have a fine disco album, possibly Ross's best solo offering. I don't know why she was worried - the disco sucks crowd would have hated it anyway. It almost plays like a Chic album with Ross on vocals and that could never be a bad thing. In the long run, however, Ross did not achieve anything like the level of commercial success again, subsequent albums were patchy, often uninspired and went very much under the radar. This was very much her final career high.
Incidentally, her discography shows two albums called "Diana Ross", another two titled "Ross" and this one called "diana" - so much for inventive titles!
I like this period of Diana Ross. Only a couple of these albums I would call a halfway decent album, like you said they're mostly kind of touch and go, but every one of them had at least a few great tracks on them. I even like a lot of those big beautiful ballads. If you could find the right ones, there's a couple compilations that have practically all the good songs from these albums.
ReplyDeleteAs you say, there are good tracks on each one but none of the albums stand out as being a great one in their own right. As you can see, I couldn't write much about some of them.
DeleteThe one called Diana (the 1980 one) is pretty close to great though. Or at least the closest she ever came.
ReplyDeleteAgreed.
DeleteWow she came on strong right out of the gate, she must have recorded some solo stuff while still technically in The Supremes. Hey, it’s Randy, I went through google this time but I’m still anonymous. Not surprised to learn things were tumultuous with Marvin . She’s a great talent and smart enough to evolve. I might even have liked some of her Disco songs 😉
ReplyDeleteHey Randy, of all the stuff I have reviewed, I didn't expect you to rock up on Diana Ross! Glad you enjoyed the read, you sly old disco fox 🦊 🕺
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