Gladys knight and the pips songs full#
Gladys knight and the pips songs plus#

When she adds a squeal or a grunt or a growl on this album, or holds back a tear, or turns a song into a trembling sigh, you know she means exactly what she isn't saying, and I've never heard her in better voice. But she always radiates a great singer's luminous conviction, and beneath the moderation she's very comfortable with her emotional extremities. Her way with a ballad is suspiciously smooth and direct, and her demeanor flirts with the respectable. B-Д¬ompared to sisters like Aretha Franklin or Tina Turner, Knight is a moderate. Yet her moral seriousness loses none of its weight, and there's something in her voice, a hurtful rough place the honey missed, that makes me want to listen through the humdrum dynamics of the tracks.

Gladys knight and the pips songs plus#

Or does she transcend her material after all? This is a typical Motown exploitation, comprising two strong songs that should have been on Neither One of Us plus manufacturer's seconds. It's a little skimpy (six songs plus one instrumental for just over thirty minutes), but given Mayfield's discursive propensities I'll withhold my complaints. Result: Knight's most satisfying regular-release LP. Gladys Knight, always in thrall to her material, meets Curtis Mayfield, always a more undisciplined composer than is safe for such an undisciplined singer. Weatherly's stuff does beat out the two Pips showcases, though-a transparently hokey 'I Can See Clearly Now' and a song about Granny's window designed to recall the one about Daddy's mouth. BДamn right 'Midnight Train to Georgia' is a great single, but that's no reason to devote an album to the wit and wisdom of Jim Weatherly. You'd think she was planning to leave her label. From the hits through the covers to the fillers she turns in a more than creditable job, but only on a slow version of 'For Once in My Life' do you feel she couldn't go a little deeper. If Knight is the golden mean of female soul, here she could use some burnishing.

Gladys knight and the pips songs full#

Annoyance: the tasteful but extraneous strings on the remakes of 'Every Beat of My Heart' and 'Letter Full of Tears.' A. Reviving 'The Nitty Gritty' isn't a very good way of getting down there-nothing else here matches the shouting funk of 'Grapevine' or 'End of Our Road,' and her penchant for solid schmaltz obviously goes way back.

The Best of Gladys Knight & the Pips: The Columbia Years B.

The Best of Gladys Knight & the Pips B+.

Robert Christgau: CG: Gladys Knight & the Pips