Apologises, I've been wanting to get this review up for a couple of weeks but life has been keeping me busy. But glad to finally to be writing the review now for a great little concept album from one of the greatest personalities in the industry.
This beautiful tribute album sees Bette pay respect to the best girl groups of all time, mostly the girl groups of the 1960s. The album was released late last year in the US, but inexplicably wasn't released in Australia until a few weeks back, when it did, it went Top Ten.
Now this is a great album jam packed with some many classic songs. Bette's voice sounds as good as ever. She has great power in her voice, but better than that, her instrument is filled with so much character that you can't help but smile as you listen to her sing. There is an ease to her voice and I can imagine this is a record I will be revisiting many more times over the years.
Listening to this album, I am also reminded of one of her amazing albums from many years ago, 1998s "Bathhouse Betty", an album I adore filled with beautiful tracks. There's a lot to love here. Opener and first single, "Be My Baby" is a standard rendition made special by Better's voice. "One Fine Day" is also a pretty faithful cover, sounding great to sing along with.
It's when she mixes things up a little that this album truly hits its stride. The stripped back "Baby It's You" is a revelation, the country inspired "You Can't Hurry Love" is wondrous. While a ballad version of "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow" has been done many times (I adore the Amy Winehouse cover), Bette marks her own territory with a beautiful cover.
When Bette has fun, we have fun. So many of these sings sound so wonderfully camp. "Too Many Fish in the Sea" is classic old school Bette, and Bette singing to herself in "Give Him a Great Big Kiss" is simply great.
Other highlights include the beauty of "Bei Mir Bist du Schon" and the lovely duet with Darlene Love, "He's Sure the Boy I Love". For me the highlight is certainly her piano cover of TLC's iconic, "Waterfalls". While most of the songs are from the 60s, this 90s track makes me wish she would have included some more 80s and 90s girl group songs, a bit of Bananarama, En Vogue or even some Spice Girls, maybe?
It's nice to see Bette back, especially with an album so strong. It's Mother's Day this week and this could be a perfect album for your Mum. Or for you, I'm not judging, I loved the album too!
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