Streisand’s latest is her best
Barbra
Hold on to your iPods, music lovers, Barbra Streisand has released a gem of an album.
In the 1960s, when Streisand went from a gawky Brooklyn teenager to one of the top recording artists of the decade, her albums were released fast and furious and nearly every one was a bell-ringer. Something happened to Streisand in the 1960s. Call it disco. Call it Jon Peters. Call it Stoney End. But early devotees called it a catastrophe. Only the most devoted of fans would admit to owning a copy of “Wet,” or “The Main Event,” to say nothing of “Butterfly” or “Superman.” And while Streisand made a feint toward returning to her roots with “The Broadway Album,” the fact is that she was only on Broadway twice (”I Can Get It For You Wholesale” and “Funny Girl”) and the album, though better than most of its kind (thanks to Streisand’s still-sterling soprano) suffered from the same more-is-more vocal histrionics that had come to define Streisand’s work.
Leave it to Diana Krall to tame the Streisand beast. “Love is the Answer,” produced by the jazz artist, is an absolutely gorgeous Streisand album that reminds listeners of how and why she set the recording world ablaze in the 1960s. While her Broadway albums were anthems, her new album is a hymn. It is a real return to her roots [Dash] the intimate cabaret bars like the Village Vanguard, in which she set jaws to drop with her rendition of “A Sleepin’ Bee.”
“Love is the Answer” is her 63rd Album, 51 of which went gold. It is deeply enhanced by some magical arrangements of chestnuts like “Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most,” “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” and an inspired “Make Someone Happy.” The opening song, “Here’s to Life,” is reason to buy the album while the wistful, intimate “Some Other Time,” is sung with just the right tinge of regret. The understated delivery, accompaniment of Krall’s trio, is just what the overstated Streisand needed.