Title: She’s Back
Artist: Dionne Warwick
Label: eOne
Formats: CD, Digital
Release date: June 7, 2019
The great Dionne Warwick has had one of the longest careers in the music industry and at 78-years-old she is far from finished. Warwick returns to her roots on her latest album, She’s Back, produced by her son, Damon Elliott. Though she is still perfectly capable of carrying a song, the tracks that really soar pair Warwick with other artists, and she has chosen some of the best. Highlights include the ballads “Am I Dreaming” featuring Musiq Soulchild, whose dulcet tones blend well with Warwick’s throatier voice, and “How Do You Keep the Music Playing” with After 7’s Kevon Edmonds, which is nothing short of a life-affirming statement of purpose. Some of the more contemporary efforts, such as “Déjà Vu” with Krayzie Bone, fail to gel, but the album picks up steam again with uptempo songs such as “Life is Waiting” and Ashford and Simpson’s “We Need to Go Back.” Despite billing the album as Warwick’s first R&B/soul release in fifty years, she really soars on two Burt Bacharach pop classics—the uplifting “If I Want To” and “What the World Needs Now”—concluding the album with a positive message song. The two-CD set also includes a remastered edition of her 1998 album, Dionne Sings Dionne, which features her greatest hits, remastered for this edition. Continue reading