Barbra Streisand
Album: Love is the Answer
Label: Columbia/Sony
Rating: ***
Streisand possesses one of the most iconic voices in pop music history. She’s also one of the few artists who could get away with putting a picture of her dog on the back cover of an album called Love is the Answer. There’s a huge comfort quality in hearing Streisand’s voice on her first studio effort in four years. The fact that she’s still singing with grace and style offers some stability in an otherwise truly nutty world. Here, Streisand teams up with Diana Krall as producer. Krall’s gift for candlelight-and-wine softness is a smart match for Streisand’s aging voice. Her voice is a theatrical one, however, that doesn’t always fit with the 11 p.m.-on-the-couch pace Krall sets. She sings the Jacque Briel classic almost like a kid in elocution class. Still it’s good to have Barbra’s voice again.
On the web
http://www.barbrastreisand.com/ca/home
