Everyone knows Anita's hits from her breakthrough release, "Rapture" and its successor, "Giving You the Best That I Got"...you had to be under a rock in the mid-to-late 80's to not hear "Sweet Love," "Same Ole Love (365 Days a Year)" and "Giving You the Best That I Got" played on the radio in regular rotation (those were the days when adult artists still got airplay and cracked the Top 40...and in Baker's case, the Top Ten). But "Compositions," Anita's fourth album, is her true work of art.
As the title suggests, Anita contributed to the writing of most of the album, even penning one tune solo. The result is some of the most well-measured material in her career. You'd be hard-pressed to find a song better suited to Baker's voice than "Talk to Me," a warm ballad that could either be from friend to friend or lover to lover. The same can be said for "Perfect Love Affair" and "No One to Blame," songs that, instead of sounding like leftovers from "Rapture," manage to further mine Anita's definitive style, coming off as instant classics.
Baker's forays into jazz were always frequent ("Rapture"'s "Been So Long" and "Giving You the Best"'s "Good Enough" have always been considered among her best) but "Love You to the Letter" and "Lonely" (the latter of which is Anita's solo composition) take her over the edge into full Swing Diva mode. Somewhere between Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald, Anita finds her own jazz voice and makes you wonder what sort of magic she'd conjure up on an album of standards. "Fairy Tales" even offers a taste of modern jazz, offering an extremely generous piano solo and feeling like an old-fashioned jam session as it clocks in over eight minutes.
Throw in the lush pop of "Soul Inspiration" (rightly a successful pop single at the time of this album's release) and you have the portrait of an artist in top form. Her voice has never sounded better and her material has never been better suited to her talents. "Rapture" will always be a classic and it is definitely the album that brought Anita to the world's attention, but "Compositions" shows the heights to which a gifted artist can truly soar.
CONDITION: (SEE AVAILABLE OPTIONS AND PRICING)
LABEL: ELEKTRA RECORDS
CATALOG: 60979-2
MATRIX: CD: 609792DISC2 01! CD SINGLE: 609792DISC1 01!
YEAR: 1990
FORMAT: CD
TRACK LIST:
- TALK TO ME
- PERFECT LOVE AFFAIR
- WHATEVER IT TAKES
- SOUL INSPIRATION
- LONELY
- NO ONE TO BLAME
- MORE THAN YOU KNOW
- LOVE YOU TO THE LETTER
- FAIRY TALES
- TALK TO ME (SINGLE)
NOTES: SOLD AS IS!!! PROMOTIONAL COPIES MAY BE/HAVE STICKERS, HOLE PUNCHED, STAMPDED, CORNER OF ARTWORK CUT, SPINE KNOTCHED, MISSING ARTWORK (FRONT AND/OR TRAYCARD), AND ETC. SOLD AS IS!!!