★★★★★
Since Chrysalis Records brought in session multi-instrumentalist Neil Giraldo, in 1978, to anchor Benatar's famed four-and-a-half-octave vocals with his grinding guitars, the couple have scored onstage and off. A quarter-century later, they're back after dabbling in the blues (this is their first album in six years). Benatar's name is all over this album, but I swear Giraldo's fingerprints are all over the plastic wrapping...
- www.hour.ca
2010-11-09
★★★★★
Pre-stardom, this '80s rock queen was a Virginia bank clerk born Patricia Mae Andrzejewski Twenty-six years after she dared a hunk to hit her or become a notch on her lipstick case, Pat Benatar's list of achievements is both formidable and dubious: Her pop-metal riffs cut a swath for Bon Jovi and Def Leppard, the credits to her second album thanked a leotard manufacturer and her power bob inspired a covey of teen clones in Fast Times at Ridgemont High...
- www.blender.com
2010-08-22
★★★★★
Where some "eclectic" rock and rollers brim with sheer experimental joy, Benatar is sodden with try-anything-once ambition. From showbiz "hard rock" ("Heartbreaker") to big-beat "cabaret" ("Don't Let It Show") to received "futurism" ("My Clone Sleeps Alone") to fake-Blondie "Eurodisco" ("We Live for Love"), she shows about as much aesthetic principle as Don Kirshner. Though she does have a better voice than Kirshner.
- www.robertchristgau.com
2009-07-10
★★★★★
Does anyone remember anymore that she was originally a "cabaret" act? Does anyone remember anymore that early on she was sold as "new wave"? Cher without innocence, chutzpah, acting ability, or "Gypsys, Tramps, and Thieves," she finally semiretired to family life. This best-of is her artistic legacy. I'm sure she's a good mom--pretty sure, anyway.
- www.robertchristgau.com
2009-07-10
★★★★★
If nothing else, the arrival of a new album from Pat Benatar proves she's a committed pro. But Go proves a bit more than that. It turns out Benatar, whose bantam squint ruled the early days of MTV more or less unopposed until Madonna came along and wiped her from the planet, still has the fury that launched a thousand headbands. If only she still had her ear for rock & roll. Benatar seems well positioned for a comeback. You can almost see her dueting with Gwen Stefani -- Benatar 2...
- ew.com
2009-06-12
★★★★★
Soaring through nervy Eurodisco-metal about domestic violence, Benatar's octave-vaulting voice took no prisoners. But All Fired Up: The Very Best of Pat Benatar should have collected more sassy early-'80s new-wave hooks and less of her later futuristic experiments and blues floundering. But it still proves her a tougher cookie than any current riot grrrl. B+
- ew.com
2009-06-12
★★★★★
Pat Benatar has just released the comedy record of the year. On it, she sings theblues ? perhaps the most uproariously dumb idea for an album sinceEthel Merman recorded disco in 1979. Then again, Merman was kidding.Benatar intends no such levity. In interviews, the 38-year-old singerindicates with a straight face that this peerless bomb, in which shetakes on brassy tunes by the likes of B.B. King, is her ticket togrown-up respectability...
- ew.com
2009-06-12
★★★★★
Pat Benatar made a minor breakthrough last year with Get Nervous, her best job yet of singing hard rock without wrenching her voice out of shape. But those gains have been tossed right out the window on Live from Earth, a poorly recorded, poorly played and, above all, poorly sung live album that sacrifices her lovely, potent voice at the altar of hard-rock bombast. Some of it's downright embarrassing...
- www.rollingstone.com
2009-06-08
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