Gladys Knight

Gladys Knight's voice keeps getting fuller, richer, roomier, as if, even at forty-three, she
still had a lot of voice to grow into. Despite this, and a continuous string of R&B hits (including
a near-brilliant 1983 album, Visions), she and the Pips have been locked out of pop radio for
more than a decade, seemingly frozen into their "Midnight Train to Georgia" dance steps.
But there's no more contemporary a pop record than "Love Overboard," the first... More >

The CD-era duration does indulge Knight's middle-class vices. At twenty-eight minutes for six songs that are longer on melodrama than break beats, the second side is like a suburban living room that seems overfurnished even though all the pieces are in the best contemporary taste. But Knight has one of those burgundy voices, designed to age, and since her albums have rarely done it justice, the edgy writing and overall strength of this multiproducer soul-dance-pop-whatever comeback is a gift. (Grade: B+)