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Diana Ross's Third Album For RCA Records - And The Worst!

Ian Phillips | Bolton, Lancashire, UK | 06/06/2006

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Following on from the dreary, mish-mash affair of the Gold-selling Silk Electric (1982) album, soul diva Diana Ross returned to the recording studios with producers Gary Katz and Ray Parker Jnr for her third studio project for RCA/Capitol Records. What resulted was easily her worst album for the label (and infact her entire career!).



Ross (1983) opens with, at the most, mediocre, That's How You Start Over, written by Michael McDonald, Ed Stanford and produced by Gary Katz. That's How You Start Over begins with a wonderful piano interlude that leads you to believe the track is going to pump out into a jamming, soulful affair. Alas, it turns out to be a major diappointment. The mid tempo flow features Ross' appealing enough vocals that also somehow lacks the soulful edge that ignited even the most mediocre song she recorded at Motown. That's How You Start Over lands somewhere between Pop-Disco-Jazz but fails to spark.



Ross goes in for the more electronic, atmospheric vibe on the so-so Love Will Make You Right, written by Donald fagen and produced by Gary Katz. The crashing, swirling sound effects on the tracks dreamy chrous gives the track some fire but it comes off flawed and lacking in some way - ponderous in a way.



The warm, exotic You Do It features the diva delivering her more breathy, seamless vocal style even though You Do It, written by Rafe Van Hoy, Deborah Allen, Eddie Struzick and produced by Gary Katz, is nothing particularly memroable even though being a pleasant alternative.



The minor highlight of Ross (1983) is served with the startling, atmospheric Pieces Of Ice, an odd yet interesting compostion with strange, meaningless lyrics from Marc Jordan and John Capek. It's curious as to what makes this track work, especially as some of the lyrics don't even make SENSE, but Ross' slightly chilly yet exuberant and compelling delivery may have something to do with it. Pieces Of Ice was lifted as a single and crawled on to the U.K/U.S Top 50 charts. It also became the only single from Ross'83 to actually hit the Top 50 charts.



Returning to the more traditional Diana Ross sound is evident on the gloriously upbeat Lets Go Up where Ross really hits her stride on the sweeping verses and feel-good chrous. Written by Franne Gold and Peter Ives and produced yet again by Gary Katz, Lets Go Up is distinctly dated to the 1980's but still proves irrisistable. Lets Go Up found its way to being lifted as a single though got as far as No.77 on the U.S BillBoard Hot 100.



Love Or Lonliness, written, produced, engineered and arranged by Ray Parker Jnr is a nice, smooth ballad with a hint of country music blended into the overly Pop arrangements and a fine, easy-going performance from Ross.



Ross jams on Up Front, a diverse, adventurous experiment that somehow comes off not sounding fully formed despite the electric, sassy performance from Ross. Ross' own track, Girls which she produced herself and co wrote with Bill Wray and Marc Jordan, serves as another major disappointment. Girls rolls along failing to ignite especially on the tracks dreary chrous. Nice try but a failed experiment.



Ross (1983) to a keen Diana Ross fan like myself is disppointing even though this was adventurous and ambitious on Ross' part. Some have declared this album to be something of an over-looked masterpiece which I beg to differ with but then it's all purely a matter of opinion.



Sales were generally low for the Ross (1983) album where it literally scraped into the lower reaches of the U.K/U.S Top 75 Album Charts.





However what is most startling is that striking red front cover with Ross looking divine as always as though she were some sort of heavenly goddess - despite her hair looking slightly like a fright wig and her eyes half shut as though she's stoned!





Ian Phillips

"

One of the best

Miawil | Miami | 04/19/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Prior to buying this CD as an effort to complete my Diana Ross collection, I only knew three things about this album; that it had flopped, that it was terrible, that it was forgotten. Well, never believe all the bad hype. I love it. There is hardly a bad track on here. The tunes are all great and upbeat and I don't know why it is so underrated."