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From the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

Rapture

Anita Baker

1986

Rapture
Album Summary

Rapture is the second album by American vocalist Anita Baker, released in 1986. This became Baker's breakout album and earning her two Grammy Awards. The album's first track, "Sweet Love", was a top 10 Billboard hit in addition to winning a Grammy Award. The music video for the track "Same Ole Love" was filmed at Baker's Keyboard Lounge.

Wikipedia

Rating

2.92

Votes

9935
Genres
Soul

Reviews

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View Author
Tue Jun 29 2021
2

While Anita Baker has a nice voice and these songs are perfectly fine, I don't find anything revelatory about this album. I can't say I've ever thought "I'd like to hear an Anita Baker song now" or ever heard one of the hits from it and thought "Wow! What a great song!" The chime-y keyboard sounds, along with some of the other production, place it squarely in the 80s soft-pop genre, and it's unfortunately mostly forgetable.

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Mon Sep 20 2021
3

Adult Contemporary. It’s only for adults. Don’t you dare listen to this kids, it’s for the adults. This is the music that’s playing on a paint stained boom box in your neighborhoods open garage. It’s a hot Sunday afternoon in early September. Your neighbor’s dad has half their Chevy in pieces in the driveway and he’s covered in oil stains. He’s smoked a pack of cigs and crushed a 12 pack of Miller highlife before the late games kicked off. This is the album he’s listening to while he curses at the old truck. I haven’t listened to it yet (or checked that it exists) but I know Anita Baker has a great Christmas Album. 3/5. Good to know Baker.

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Fri Dec 10 2021
3

Comparing R&B here to the 60s, it is night and day. Nina and Aretha in the 60s make you feel something. Anita’s album has a strong vocal performance with perfect production, but it takes itself too seriously and ultimately feels lifeless. Nothing to hate, but it hardly goes beyond an average score for an R&B record.

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Sun Jan 17 2021
4

1001 albums you must hear before you die and it’s day 5!! To anyone that isn’t familiar, I have given myself the challenge of giving my own personal take on each and every album listed in the book 1001 albums you must hear before you die, a book by Robert Dimery. I found this book one day in 2016 in Barnes and Noble, and impulsively bought it. Since then, I’ve felt challenged by it every time I would flip through it out of boredom. I consider myself a music nerd but man, there’s a lot of music within 1001 albums. If I listen to every single album without missing a day, it will take me close to three years to finish. AND IM HERE FOR IT!! Without further ado, I got a MONSTER of an album to share with you all! Anita Baker’s 8 million copies sold, 2 Grammy winning sophomore album, The Rapture. Released quietly in 1986, this fucking album was a phenomenon within itself! I won’t sit here and try to act like I knew all about Anita Baker in 1986, when I was four years old, and quite frankly, when I was randomly generated this album to listen to I was a little intimidated... I LOVE QUIET STORM MUSIC! What is quiet storm music? Well, to me, it’s mood setting music. It’s baby making music, it’s ambiance music to fall peacefully to sleep to. It’s music you play after a break up or discovery of a new love. Quiet storm music is calming and can cater to any mood and that’s why I love it so much. Anita Baker had a hard life. Her mother abandoned her early on at 2 years old, she had to live through the civil unrest of the 1960’s, her foster parents died when she was twelve and she grew up in Detroit on top of all of that. Yikes. But there’s an emotion in her voice that I can’t describe any other way than as “pleading”. Not begging, per say, but an emotion that says HERE I AM! I MADE IT THROUGH! NOW LISTEN TO ME! RIGHT NOW! She kept her dream of being a top notch singer and performer and was recruited to join a funk band named Chapter 8, where she met Michael J Powell and boy, let me tell you, they mixed better than tea and sugar! The production and arrangement that Michael J Powell birthed into this project is so, sooo good! Every instrument is a star on every song. The band never took a day off on any of the eight tracks. The bass? Deep, funky and quite frankly... Superb. The drums? Sampled heavily by the likes of everyone from Jadakiss to Mac Miller. It’s impressive how influential Anita Baker has been to Hip Hop, my very first love. Oh yeah, Strings, horns, piano? Sharp as a razors edge. So many songs have since been sampled by other innovators like Ice Cube, A Tribe Caller Quest, Drake and everyone in between. Jeez. Anita Baker broke out with this album in a big way, and so much more was to come in the future for her that it’s hard for me to not visit her next releases (looking at you Giving You The Best That I’ve Got) .. until the generator Gods bestow them upon me! It’s tough to resist because I know there’s gold sprouting like flowers in her repertoire that I already subconsciously know... My most favorite song is Same Ole Love (365 Days) It is upbeat, the bass slaps SO hard, and the chorus is so catchy. My second favorite is the title song, Sweet Love. It’s the epitome of Quiet storm music.. 80’s contemporary R&B. You could still hear the melodies now as if you were in a ghostly memory of an old rusted and abandoned K-Mart of your childhood, still playing Muzak in the changing rooms .. If you can imagine it. Remember Muzak? I’m definitely old enough to remember! To be completely fair, I won’t rank any other songs because they are all crafted so well, that I may change my mind during the many play throughs that I plan on having in the future. PLEASE share your thoughts and memories of these masterpieces in Quiet Storm style music. I can still hear the DJ’s soothing my soul with their calming dialogue before they cue up the next song. Diana Ross once sang the lyric “Im Coming Out!” ... Anita Baker said hold my beer y’all. Damn... Much respect. Last, but not least, albums like this make me excited to hear acts like Sade, Luther, Brian McKnight, Teddy P, Smokey, Babyface and more... Even more. Much love, thanks for reading. Music heals. 🙏✌️

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Thu Aug 25 2022
1

A very uninspired assortment of supermarket music. While Baker’s voice is powerful and bursting with emotion, this is somewhat undermined by the obnoxiously synthetic 80s production which capes every track in a layer of aural polythene. It’s hard to treat anything Baker sings about with any sincerity when she’s surrounded by such artificiality. Additionally, I would argue the songs just aren’t there on this album and they don’t amount to anything remotely consequential. Why this is so acclaimed is beyond me. Not fun. Not interesting. Takes itself way too seriously. It’s a begrudging 1 out of 5 from me.

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Mon Apr 19 2021
5

“Rapture” by Anita Baker (1986) More great music out of Detroit. Anita Baker is a gem, bringing the serious listener a classic taste of R&B, no matter what mood you’re in. Her voice is beautiful, instantly and effortlessly moving from soulful resonance to piercing wail, kind of like your heart, if you’re human. Backing vocals and instrumentals exquisitely performed and mixed, this is an extraordinarily well produced collection of love songs. Delicate hand on the reverb. Great separation and depth. But the voice. The voice. I just bought this album on iTunes and put in on loop. Leave me alone for a couple hours. 5/5

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Wed Mar 03 2021
2

Very special voice. But not my style.

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Wed Nov 22 2023
2

I cannot stand this type of schlocky, over produced 80’s adult contemporary music. It’s like a Thomas Kinkade painting: gauzy and not reflective of reality. Anita Baker is a great singer, but, to my ears, this music sounds incredibly dated.

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Wed Oct 26 2022
4

Incomplete on Spotify but what’s available bops. Love to recognize the MF DOOM Hoe Cakes sample originated in…(checks notes) Sweet Love. Deborah Vance eat your heart out.

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Mon Jan 04 2021
3

I preface this by admitting that my ears know nothing about R&B, just that sometimes I enjoy it. That said, this feels by-the-numbers, but the numbers are about twice as big as usual. Very pleasant listening.

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Thu Mar 24 2022
2

Before this record, I had never heard the name quiet storm, the genre to which this album apparently belongs (I knew about the genre, just not the name). The brief potted history of quiet storm goes: in the 70s, with African-American audiences for soul music growing older, along with more and more African-Americans entering the middle class, suburbia and college, there emerged a market for a form of soul music more apposite for this upwardly-mobile demographic. That is, they sought an easy, Vaseline-smooth, uncontroversial soul music as a pleasant background sound to lovemaking. Taking its name from a radio show, which in turn took its name from a rather lovely Smokey Robinson number, quiet storm proved insanely lucrative throughout the 80s, yet it has never shaken the reputation of artificiality, of using the tools of soul to create product rather than soul. I have never been fond of that overproduced, anaemic style which became the dominant form of mainstream soul in the 80s. Partially it is the sense that this is soul for the Reagan era, of Reagan-approved soul. Many of the greats of 60s and 70s soul (Jame Brown, Curtis Mayfield, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, etc.) often had a civil-rights-era political dimension to their music, but 80s soul largely abstracted itself from that aspect. But that is not the issue here. Simply, all heart has been sapped from the music. The production has aged as well as Jacko’s legacy, and that smooth soul plus smooth jazz leaves the listener with nothing to hold on. Tragically, Anita Baker is an obviously talented singer, who happened to come to prominence after the golden age of soul. Individual moments strike the listener, but it requires the listener to sift. I accept that part of the 1001 exercise is to cover a gamut of Anglo-American popular music, but that does mean it occasionally throws up prominent albums from iffy genres. In American Psycho, the protagonist Patrick Bateman devotes a chapter to his appreciation of Whitney Houston (who does not have an album on this list, by the by), just after describing a sexually sadistic murder. He characterises Whitney as the greatest jazz singer of her generation, and tells the reader of the dignity and sincerity inherent to her debut album. Of course, this is meant satirically. We recognise that we are meant to mock Patrick for his abysmal taste and his facile justifications (which seem cribbed from music critics, indicating Patrick’s obsession with conforming), with the implicit message that Whitney’s music, and by extension quiet storm, is largely a cold, barren wasteland. Anita Baker had the misfortune to sow her seed on that wasteland. That said, in the wake of Whitney’s death, there has been more of an appreciation of her abilities as a singer, but not to the extent that it has prompted a critical reassessment of her 80s work. And yes, I know it is unusual to spend so much time talking about Whitney Houston in an Anita Baker review, but it underscores my point: sometimes genres should just be left to rot. Or are we all clamouring for the return of the teen death ballad?

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Tue Jan 19 2021
5

I'm a sucker for eighties soul production. This album was fantastic on that alone. Add in bakers vocals it was a homerun

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Sun Mar 14 2021
5

Chill. Good. Understated. Feels familiar. Morning vibes.

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Thu Apr 22 2021
5

A 4 or a 5. Oh what the hell

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Mon Sep 27 2021
5

Это полный восторг!

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Fri Dec 10 2021
5

Absolutely blown away by Anita's beautiful voice. This old school RnB was such a breath of fresh air and it will be in heavy rotation for me.

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Fri Apr 08 2022
5

After Murder Ballads on one day and noise rock the next, the 1001 Album Gods took mercy on my ears with a quiet storm of perfect 80s soul. This was just the musical hug I had no idea I was needing. The production is spot on. This is music for a romantic evening in a swanky blue-lit nightclub sipping on a cocktail as the conversation grows more and more intimate. Sax-forward and butter-smooth, RAPTURE is an unexpectedly wonderful addition to my night.

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Fri Apr 08 2022
5

Ahhhhhhh, what a voice! Sweet and smooth like silky honey. Released just as I was starting college, this seemed like music for old people to me. I guess I'm old now because it just sounded great today. A genuine treat.

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Wed Apr 20 2022
5

I loved this. Anita's voice is so beautiful and soulful.

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Wed Jun 29 2022
5

Sweet, sweet smooth 80s R&B. Love this stuff. Best tracks are the ones with Freddie Washington on bass. That guy grooves. Saddened to read that Don Myrick, who was in the original Earth, Wind & Fire horn section and the sax soloist on 'You Bring Me Joy' was murdered by a police officer who mistook his lighter for a weapon. In better news, I read that Anita Baker has regained the rights to her music so fingers crossed all her records will be available for streaming soon.

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Fri Jul 08 2022
5

Phenomenal. I've always loved her voice and her music.

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Thu Aug 04 2022
5

Well that was sublime 🥰 Perfect for an evening curled on the sofa in front of a fire with the love of your life, with a glass or two of your favourite tipple. Lovely

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Wed Aug 17 2022
5

For me this is the best embodiment of the R&B quiet storm that was very popular in the 80s. A perfect late night album - it doesn't sound very 80s. There are too many classic, retro touches - R&B with a dash of jazz (especially her scat singing). She sounds older than her years (28) and more experienced (her second album) throughout. It is what every soul album in the 80s aspired to live up to. I can't think of one that came close.

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Fri Aug 26 2022
5

Beautiful voice - had to listen on YT b/c half of the album was hidden on Spotify?

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Thu Sep 01 2022
5

I didn't want this album to end.

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Fri Sep 16 2022
5

Oh my God, I love it already! Reminds me of my childhood. 70s sound with 80s production.

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Thu Jan 26 2023
5

A stunning album, great singing, great bass, fantastic sax

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Wed Mar 22 2023
5

Bright, joyful, super smooth. I've always had an appreciation for this type of RnB, the kind when the piano just glistens as the singer sings soulfully over it. Anita has a gorgeous voice, and it just plays against the instruments so well. So many wonderful melismatic runs, hooks for days. It might be a little cheesy, but I think it's aware of that, and plays into it. Favorite tracks: "Mystery", "Sweet Love", "Caught Up In The Rapture", "Same Ole Love"

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Fri Apr 28 2023
5

A great album from one of my favourite vocalists! favs: You Bring Me Joy, Watch Your Step, Same Ole Love, Sweet Love, Caught Up In The Rapture least fav: No One In The World

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Wed Aug 09 2023
5

I fondly remembered Anita Baker thanks to my aunt & uncle listening to R&B stations back in the day. Every time Anita came on, I'd stop to listen. To this day, I think about her - I'm so glad this was on the challenge. This is classic R&B, and it's done right. I loved this album so much, I listened to it three times & let the algorithm run free after the album was over. What an awesome day of beautiful & chill R&B. It was like hearty chicken soup for the soul. 5 stars.

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Fri Aug 25 2023
5

Beautiful gem that will now live in my life forever

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Mon Aug 28 2023
5

A great album! Surprised that I knew so many of these songs.

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Thu Dec 21 2023
5

Oh I am so excited to see this on the list. It’s so nice to see anything other than more white men. It’s rare to find some soul in this list of sameness. Aaaaand of course Spotify has half the songs on the album blocked. SMH One of the things I admired about Anita Baker was that, at the absolute peak of fame, she walked away from it all to care for her sick relative. Just left the world behind for the sake of love. I still enjoy her music. The two big hits are still perfect r&b pop. Even my 80yr old grandfather used to like her back in the day. Her voice is effortless and clear. So much of the melody is carried in her singing. It’s hard not to blast this to sing along to. Her voice just invites you to join in. Really enjoying this. No One in the World is new to me and has been added to mixes now. Ok now pretty much everything has been saved to my lists. Forgot about Same Ole Love. Friggin’ love it. Excellent album. Wish it was fully available. Happy to have more Anita Baker in my life. This is a great example of 80’s quiet storm, easy r&b. Great music that still holds up. Perfect performances all around. Already replaying.

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Thu Jan 18 2024
5

Her voice is amazing! the percussion work is a masterpiece. The passion this album displays is a must to appreciate.

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Mon Jan 22 2024
5

Sweet, sweet voice. I’d heard her before but hadn’t really listened to a full selection. Just soothing & sweet.

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Fri Feb 16 2024
5

spotify would only allow me to listen to 5 of the 8 songs on the album.

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Wed Feb 28 2024
5

This was a brilliant listen, faultless.

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Tue Mar 05 2024
5

p559. 1986. 5 stars. One of THE great soul voices on absolutely top form. This is fabulous.

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Wed Nov 04 2020
4

Really fun, should check out some her other stuff

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Fri Jan 22 2021
4

Beautiful voice, I wish that I had paid more attention in the 80's

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Mon Feb 01 2021
4

Fav: Sweet Song, Been So Long

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Sun Mar 21 2021
4

Un bon album qui s’ecoute bien en background. Elle a une belle voix 4*

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Wed Jun 16 2021
4

Classic R&B sound. I didn't really listen to this in the "idea" setting (I was at work), but Baker's powerful voice and the songs' melodies still were readily apparent to me.

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Tue May 25 2021
4

Not gonna lie I didn't pay that much attention to this. But it was pretty good. 7

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Thu Apr 08 2021
4

I really liked this one. Not my genre but like Isaac Hayes I learned maybe it is.

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Sun Jul 04 2021
4

most of it was not on spotofy but liked what I heard

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Fri Jul 09 2021
4

When I was 15, my uncle gave me a cassette of this album for Christmas. As a proper Smiths-listening weirdo of the mid ‘80s, I really didn’t get it, nor did I have an interest in getting it. I obviously wasn’t mature enough for this kind of music at the time, but I can say that I appreciate it now. This is classic R&B mood music of the old school. Baker’s vocals are immaculate and the production is flawless. This is a great album to relax with. Favorite tracks: “Sweet Love,” and “Caught Up in the Rapture.”

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Wed Jul 21 2021
4

July 20, 2021 Her voice is beautiful, and there are songs I like on here. An easy listen, although not my preferred genre(s). Great ambiance.

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Wed Oct 06 2021
4

Gran voz, gran instrumentación y duración corta. En cuanto lo escuchas, percibes los 80. Mood: mellow

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Fri Oct 22 2021
4

Really beautiful album. I will give Anita Baker more of a listen.

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Wed Oct 27 2021
4

Definitely a solid pop album

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Wed Nov 17 2021
4

TIL: Quiet storm is a subgenre of R&B — and I’m lovin’ every minute of it.

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Fri Dec 17 2021
4

Great voice and Sweet Love is a brilliant song. Much of the rest of the album washed over me. No standouts but I enjoyed it. 3.5 stars. I'll round up to 4

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Wed Dec 22 2021
4

Dance floors and neon lights, Anita Baker's 'Rapture' is soulful pop with a tinge of R&B. 1980s pop production called for reverb-heavy drums and hall vocals, all accompanied by a simple 4/4 beat - this album delivers just that, providing some predictability. However, Baker's vocals is graceful and soulful, fitting the musical description of what the music wishes.

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Thu Dec 30 2021
4

Ahhh 80s-90s sex music. Nothing bad to say about it except that the full album wasn't on spotify and out of order on youtube so I probably didn't get the intended listening experience

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Mon Feb 14 2022
4

“An acquired but enduring taste.” Smooth.

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Wed Feb 16 2022
4

Always enjoy her voice great collection of songs

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Wed Feb 16 2022
4

This album was everywhere in ~1987 - as a teen into hard rock at the time it's safe to say I ignored it. :) ...and while it's still not necessarily my favourite [it's a bit smooth for my personal tastes] for what it is, it does sound freaking fantastic. Anita Baker is a great singer who didn't necessarily sound like anyone else but still was very accessible. Maybe it was her slightly-lower register or husky timbre; it definitely sits above others for me in the genre (contrast with wailing soprano vocalists of the day that I definitely still don't care for) and despite a general same-ness to the album, it's short enough (~38 minutes) to not really drag much at all. Again on a personal level, it would have been nice overall to hear more of the musicians/instruments reaching a bit - it's a very "safe" album musically which no doubt was the intent. If you're more into any instrumental flights of fancy over vocals, like me you might knock it down a few pegs. Having said that, this is objectively an excellent soft-soul album. 7/10 4 stars

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Fri Feb 25 2022
4

Beautiful voice, soulful music. Good album!

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Wed Mar 16 2022
4

I bought this at the time and enjoyed it a great deal at the time. I rarely feel the urge to hear it these days but it's still a good album with plenty to offer if you're in the mood. One of those One Album Artists, though, at least in terms of commercial success in the UK.

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Fri Apr 08 2022
4

This album was familiar and soothing. Anita Baker’s voice is a treat and the easy-listening style of the music felt like a gentle massage. I think I prefer this silky delight mixed with some variety of other artists, as the album as a whole felt just a little under-seasoned for me.

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Fri Apr 08 2022
4

This brought me back to my days of working as an office temp in the early 90s with smooth adult contemporary radio stations so often playing in the background. "Spending the workday with your favorites from the seventies, eighties, and today!" It was never music I chose, but it was always music that was there. And today I realized I kind of miss it. Although it's never been in my nostalgia collections, it's been long enough that it was a pleasure to listen to and it took me back in time in a good way. It feels like a lavish 80s soap opera with elegant ladies in sparkling evening dresses. It's a grown-uppy kind of thing our society doesn't seem to do anymore. Is there still sumptuous music like this being made nowadays? Although this was yesterday's background music, this album has stood out in this project as something special!

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Mon Apr 18 2022
4

Very cool. I’ve heard so many of these songs before as a youth. Same Ole Love is a hidden banger.

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Sun May 29 2022
4

franchement un kiff sauf à la fin

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Wed Jun 08 2022
4

nice, pop-y, I like it. short album as well so an easy listen.

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Thu Jul 14 2022
4

4/5. Hard not to fall in love with this album. Smooth and amazing.

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Thu Jul 28 2022
4

Soultastic. She'd a lovely voice, and were I trying to seduce a woman in the 1980s I might even have put this on the stereo. Instead, it is the 2020s, and such things are probably "a bit cringe". So I'll listen to it once. Appreciate her voice and then move on with my life.

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Fri Aug 12 2022
4

Classic. Brings me back to my childhood riding in my folks car.

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Thu Aug 18 2022
4

Вот этот соул точно по душе: музыка ближе к нью-вейву, альбом бы переслушал.

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Fri Aug 26 2022
4

Had never heard of Anita Baker but was pleasantly surprised, Sweet Love was a bop and the album was nice to chill out to

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Wed Sep 28 2022
4

pretty good, had heard the album before and enjoyed it.

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Wed Oct 12 2022
4

Cet album nous présente Anita Baker, une diva à la voix sublime, qui vient nous enchanter tout au long de l'album. Malheureusement, comme les mots clés "diva" et "voix sublime" ont été utilisé, le correcteur automatique du générateur doit lui attribuer une note moyenne inférieure à 3. J'ai contacté Robert au sujet de ce correcteur que je trouve personellement défaillant. Je vous tiendrai au courant de sa réponse dans un prochain review.

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Wed Oct 12 2022
4

Si vous êtes nouveau sur le générateur et que vous vous demandez pourquoi une si belle voix et une musique de si bon goût peut avoir une note moyenne générale aussi basse, dites-vous bien qu'une grosse partie de la communauté du générateur est constituée de punks à chien ne jurant que par les germs et les minutemerde.

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Wed Nov 02 2022
4

A really enjoyable album with some great tunes

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Thu Nov 10 2022
4

Amazing voice, under-remembered.

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Wed Dec 07 2022
4

Not a style that I'm really into but still mostly enjoyed this album. She's an incredible musician and has a fantastic voice in my opinion.

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Fri Dec 16 2022
4

Soul and R&B saved '80s music.

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Thu Dec 29 2022
4

Her hits are amazing, and the rest of the album is a master class in soulful R&B.

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