Rating: NNN
One of R&B’s greatest singers, Luther Vandross died at the end of June and within two months Clive Davis managed to get an essential group of pop-soul allstars, from Mary J. to Celine Dion to Wyclef to Jamie Foxx, to redo some of Vandross’s best hits. The result is what you’d expect: lifeless lite, expensive R&B productions beneath earnest performances, making for a mutedly enjoyable experience. Alicia Keys and Jermaine Paul put some real craft into If This World Were Mine and Aretha Franklin makes A House Is Not A Home something epic. But Fantasia shouldn’t be here. Nor should Donna Summer’s technofied Power Of Love. Generally this album will make you want to listen to Vandross himself – why not just do that?
