★★★★★
Patti LaBelle likes to tell the story about when she was a very young teenager in the early '60s and had her first hit record, "I Sold My Heart to the Junkman". The Philadelphia native said she thought the song was about a girl who fell in love with a garbage collector and had no idea that "junkman" was slang for a heroin dealer. LaBelle's tale has the ring of authenticity. There were many hit songs from the era that concerned teens who fell in love with a person from the poor side of town...
- www.popmatters.com
2011-01-20
★★★★★
"Greatest Hits" collections have an interesting niche in the world of music. Avid fans of the artist tend to avoid them, unless there are previously unreleased tracks. So in essence they are for the uninitiated, those people who want to get a sense of the artist's work before diving in full steam ahead. So a good "Greatest Hits" collection ought to capture the career arc of the artist and let someone who has never heard their work understand what that artist is all about...
- www.popmatters.com
2011-01-20
★★★★★
"Greatest Hits" collections have an interesting niche in the world of music. Avid fans of the artist tend to avoid them, unless there are previously unreleased tracks. So in essence they are for the uninitiated, those people who want to get a sense of the artist's work before diving in full steam ahead. So a good "Greatest Hits" collection ought to capture the career arc of the artist and let someone who has never heard their work understand what that artist is all about...
- www.popmatters.com
2011-01-20
★★★★★
"Greatest Hits" collections have an interesting niche in the world of music. Avid fans of the artist tend to avoid them, unless there are previously unreleased tracks. So in essence they are for the uninitiated, those people who want to get a sense of the artist's work before diving in full steam ahead. So a good "Greatest Hits" collection ought to capture the career arc of the artist and let someone who has never heard their work understand what that artist is all about...
- www.popmatters.com
2011-01-20
★★★★★
In many ways, Patti LaBelle is perfectly suited for a holiday album. Her voice, at once both traditional and expressive, has enough Gospel in it to make it fit the spiritual nature of the music and enough sass to make it all sound wonderfully contemporary. And fortunately, legendary producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis bring those elements together on LaBelle's marvelous new holiday album, Miss Patti's Christmas...
- www.soultracks.com
2010-12-07
★★★★★
While Patti LaBelle has never hidden her love for Gospel music, she's spent her entire recording career on secular soul, funk and pop. So after years of planning for it, in November, 2006 she finally released her first full Gospel album, The Gospel According to Patti LaBelle. And while the album is clearly Gospel, it relies on the elements that have kept LaBelle relevant to popular audiences well into her sixties -- excellent song selection and an ear toward contemporary adult soul sounds...
- www.soultracks.com
2010-12-07
★★★★★
Forty-plus years into her legendary recording career, it is amazing that Patti LaBelle is still so relevant in the world of popular music. But she delivers the goods so often (most recently with last year's Timeless Journey), wringing out the maximum effect from whatever material she has available, that she is never far from having a memorable hit. So it seemed a natural fit for a vocal interpreter of her skills to make Classic Moments, an album of classic soul covers...
- www.soultracks.com
2010-12-07
★★★★★
Patti's lost a lot of weight, and unfortunately, a lot of her sass. Only the thrilling gospel-tinged shouter Jesus, Oh What a Wonderful Child, which is saved by The Soul Stirrers, is worthy of repeated listens. Hey, if the whole album were like this we'd have a classic soul holiday platter. Instead we have a flaccid record of Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis misfires.
- www.hour.ca
2010-11-02
★★★★★
The news that Labelle - Nona Hendryx, Sarah Dash and Patti LaBelle - had re-formed set one a-pondering as to the success, or lack of it, achieved by the three women during the hiatus. After Labelle, Nona made a brash, in yo face rock-soul album, Sarah a nondescript light soul album. And Patti...
- www.mojo4music.com
2009-07-21