★★★★★
A fabulously-gowned, luxuriously-maned glamour girl with a coy, kittenish (if slightly nasal) singing voice: that's how many people first encountered the definitive Diva, Diana Ross, and after over a century in the music business, that's what she's remained. When she first burst onto the scene as the acknowledged lead singer of The Supremes, that coo of a soprano was heard on a nearly unbroken string of timeless hits (ten of them being Number One singles) and would, predictably, serve Miss Ross...
- www.soultracks.com
2013-07-08
★★★★★
The weather wasn't kind when La Ross took to an outdoor stage to entertain 400,000 New Yorkers in the summer of 1983. Manhattan's usual July heatwave gave way to a near Biblical downpour and lashing winds, forcing the show to be called off halfway through. But she returned the following day to tell adoring fans: "It took me a lifetime to get here, and I'm not going anywhere...
- recordcollectormag.com
2013-04-02
★★★★★
From Motown's silkiest songbird to half-forgotten: whatever happened to Diana Ross? While the world of pop mourns Whitney Houston, the tragedy of her rise and fall adding her name indelibly to the soul canon alongside Aretha and Nina Simone, it almost beggars belief that Diana's name never quite made it to such lasting heights. Was she ultimately just too pop and too popular, too smooth, too inextricably bound to period pop chic to manage the required cred...
- music.thedigitalfix.com
2012-03-07
★★★★★
No replacement exists for the original Diana LP. Sitting on a record store's shelf back in 1980, the customer would see a lovely black & white photo--an upper body profile--of the supreme Supreme, looking like she's just popped out of the shower, her hair down and damp, a white T-shirt quickly thrown on, sleeve rolled up, Diana meeting your glance-turned-stare head on. Tough. Sexy...
- www.popmatters.com
2011-01-20
★★★★★
No replacement exists for the original Diana LP. Sitting on a record store's shelf back in 1980, the customer would see a lovely black & white photo--an upper body profile--of the supreme Supreme, looking like she's just popped out of the shower, her hair down and damp, a white T-shirt quickly thrown on, sleeve rolled up, Diana meeting your glance-turned-stare head on. Tough. Sexy...
- www.popmatters.com
2011-01-20
★★★★★
Across two LPs and in a gatefold sleeve, this live document, recorded in 1976 at LA's Ahmanson Theatre, saw the continued growth of Ross the solo performer. More importantly for Berry Gordy, however, it also saw Ross the money-making artist in full flight. With this recording, which mirrors her contemporary Broadway show of the same name, Ross successfully transformed herself from ex-Surpreme to, simply, supreme...
- www.recordcollectormag.com
2010-12-21
★★★★★
It's been nearly a decade since the release of a complete compilation of original material from Diana Ross. The emergence of "I Love You" has caught some by surprise and others with blatant disinterest. To her credit, Miss Ross could have joined the ranks of so many other former hitmakers and attempted to keep up with today's artists by intermingling high powered vocals with the sound of processed, mundane tracks...
- www.soultracks.com
2010-12-07
★★★★★
Buried in the Motown vaults for over three decades, the much talked-about Diana Ross album Blue emerged in June 2006. It is not surprising that the hit-obsessed Motown of 1972 chose to shelve the project, but it is sickening that this enjoyable disc didn't see the light of day so that Diana could release saccharine stuff like "Touch Me In the Morning." Anyone listening to Blue as an authentic "jazz" album will undoubtedly be disappointed...
- www.soultracks.com
2010-12-07
★★★★★
Diana has had a rough go of it the last few years: Her 1999 album, Every Day Is a New Day (my favourite since her 1980, number 1 landmark album Diana), peaked at 108 on Billboard, and 2006's Blue peaked at 146. This 15-track collection of love songs - stuff she shouldn't be singing, like Only You, You Are So Beautiful and Take My Breath Away - will make you gasp, and not in a good way...
- www.hour.ca
2010-11-02