Search - Jennifer Rush :: Passion

Kevin H. (spankrabbit) from TAMPA, FL
Reviewed on 1/22/2007...

German import, CBS 462968-2

Passion is right--Jennifer's full of it!

Daniel J. Hamlow | Narita, Japan | 11/03/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Like its 1987 predecessor, Jen's album sports many producers, but on the 1988 followup, Harold Faltermeyer, be it solo or with Billy Idol producer Keith Forsey, predominates here. The wild guitars from Heart Over Mind have been replaced with more brass and powerful drums, as is the case with "Love Get Ready", with the snazzy brass section and keyboards.If the keyboard arrangements of "You're My One And Only" feel like Taylor Dayne's "I'll Always Love You", it's because the team of Ric Wake and Rich Tancredi, who produced Taylor's debut album, are behind this power ballad. There is a fiery guitar solo in the middle, after which Rush and the backing vocalist thunder with operatic and gospel emotion. And all for wanting to "feel your lovelight shining down on my life."Michael Omartian produced "Falling In Love", a more leisurely ballad with keyboards that would be more at home with Clive Davis's staple of R&B singers. Rush wraps her voice around this no problem."When I Look In Your Eyes" sports a funky calypso sound DeBarge would feel at home doing, with its brass section. I wonder if Jennifer boogied while singing this infectious number, produced by the Wake and Tancredi team. If she didn't, obviously time to change the elasticity in her hips.How's this for a rarity? A non-ballad Diane Warren song! Produced by Jellybean of early Madonna fame, with keyboards reminding me of Whitney's "How Will I Know" or "I Wanna Dance With Somebody", "Remind My Heart" is a song of romantic prudence and pragmatism: "Remind my heart to be careful/remind my heart to be wise/I've heard that love can you happy/but love can make you proud.""Keep All The Fires Burning Bright" is another power keyboard ballad, where she pleads the title lyric because she wants to spread her wings and fly, but with a promise she'll return.The next two songs are Omartian productions. "Same Heart", has a catchy latin dance rhythm, but it contains the proverbial fly in the ointment: it's a duet with Michael Bolton, ace desecrator of classic R&B songs, but fortunately, he doesn't sound like someone is twisting a knife in his gut, not too much anyway, as Jen's vocals drown his out when they sing together. Thank goodness for small favours."My Heart Is Still Young" explores the fragility about being emotionally exposed with the dynamic of moral support as she sings "take my heart/take my hand/tell me what do you want/I want you to stay" in the same breath. a fiery rock guitar solo in the middle officially makes this a power ballad.The mid-paced Faltermeyer production "You Don't Know What You've Got (Until It's Gone)" is not the Cinderella song, although she could really do a symphonic opera around that.Another Wake/Tancredi number but with a pulsing bass/drums and some majestic keyboards, "Rain Coming Down On Me" The midsection nice gentle keyboard solo reminiscent of that in Stevie Nicks's "I Can't Wait" before launching into a fiery guitar solo."Now That It's Over" is my favourite song here because Jennifer's vocals are at their most operatic powerful and beautiful. This explores a couple who's "taken the road as far as it would go, said goodbye," but is that the end? "Now that it's over/now that we've finally reached the end/now that it's over/when all the love we both depended on/is far from gone/still we wonder why it never ends/so now that it's over/maybe we should start again." Sporting some piano-synth keys, and some strings kicking in after the second chorus. There's also that mystical reasoning that maybe to get a better appreciation of one another, maybe a brief split was needed.Whether she's singing about "falling in love again" or singing about goodbye, her voice rings more resplendent than on Heart Over Mind. As this is the first album I bought of hers in a rare moment of impulse, I favour this one most of all."

I love this CD

Nat Tombrello | Hoover, Alabama | 11/05/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Jennifer Rush is my favorite singer. She released 3 albums
on Sony here in the states in the 80's. This was the 3rd and
I think the best. She lives in New York but she is like
Madonna in Germany and very big in Europe. She was trained in
opera and her voice is very strong, smooth, and powerful.
Her sound is very Europenan and believe me when you hear
her you will want all her CD's. I can never get enough of
this CD. She works with the best producers who happen to
produce the A list of female singers. The rest of her CD's
are imports and each one is better than the other"