Customer Reviews

About Love

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4 star:		(1)
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This is perhaps the best Gladys Knight and the Pips EVER!!!!!.....Very glad it is finally available on CD!......Hey, I am 18 yrs old again.....:)

Gladys Knight and the Pips enjoyed many different phases of their music career. "About Love" marked another beginning in their successful career. It was their first album for Columbia Records and it paired them with powerhouse duo Ashford and Simpson. It was a perfect pairing. A&S were enjoying their own success as performers on Warner Bros., not to mention they were fresh off producing Diana Ross' excellent "The Boss" album from 1979. A&S proved again they were superb producers by providing Knight and the Pips with superb material, including the singles, "Landlord," the funky "Taste of Bitter Love," and the uplifting "Still Such A Thing." From Knight and the Pips' superb vocals, to the solid production, this is a perfect R&B album, long overdue on CD. The remastering is excellent.

Listening to this album, I am reminded of how current radio is lacking. Nobody sings like Gladys Knight anymore - her powerful voice has warmth, joy and soul. Today's singers sound processed and lifeless. It's great to have this on CD. However, it's becoming difficult to find. I was lucky to find it in my local CD store. It's definitely worth purchasing. Also recommended is Gladys Knight and the Pips follow-up CD, "Touch," which was also produced by Ashford and Simpson, also recently released on CD. It's not as good as "About Love," but still worthwhile.

The 1980s were a new beginning for Gladys Knight & the Pips due to the death of disco, and the ending of their contract with Buddah Records. ABOUT LOVE, the veteran act's debut album for Columbia Records, produced the excellent top 5 r&b hit "Landlord" (the group's first in five years).

Like Diana Ross' 1979 gold album THE BOSS, Ashford and Simpson succeeded in steering Gladys and the Pips from the sappy easy-listening material found on their mid to late 70s Buddah albums. The ballads "Still Such A Thing", "Add It Up" and "Friendly Persuasion" feature lyrics worthy of a fine singer like Gladys to sink her teeth into, while "Get the Love" and "We Need Hearts" are great message songs performed with sass and enthusiam. The precise string and horn arrangements compliment the smoking rhythm tracks instead of dragging them down to MOR land.

The real highlights of ABOUT LOVE are its other two top 40 r&b singles, "Taste of Bitter Love" and "Bourgie Bourgie". On "Taste..." Gladys is cool as a cucumber as she chastises a wayward lover who wants to come back. It's as if Knight is laughing at this guy. And on "Bourgie Bourgie", the group effectively display its comedic skills while satirizing high society people who forget where they come from. The Pips are hilarious as they sing such cutting lyrics as "Keep your body nice and fit/Like to see them chasing it/Never have to work too hard/your face is your credit card". Great moments like this prove that the Pips are more than just hooting owls behind a soulful lead singer.

Add together songs by Ashford and Simpson with the superb vocals of Gladys Knight and the Pips and what do you get? You get ABOUT LOVE the 1980 release by the group which was one of the best from their entire career. Each song is a success. No misses here. We open with the superb ballad LANDLORD. TASTE OF BITTER LOVE and BOURGIE, BOURGIE are both uptempo dance tracks that rose to the top of the charts. But again, all the songs here are magic. The jazzy uptempo GET THE LOVE and WE NEED HEARTS are uplifting songs of pure joy and the ballads STILL SUCH A THING and ADD IT UP ring with strong emotional depth. Then we have FRIENDLY PERSUASION a strong urban soul track that really showcases the group.

BBR does their magic here and the cd is presented beautifully remastered with extensive liner notes and 3 bonus tracks. Gladys Knight and the Pips are part of musical history but before this album the two separate entities had been recording doing their own things. And then they came back for the huge success of ABOUT LOVE. This cd definitely shows the group at their best. The songs, production and most of all vocal performances are superb. I highly recommend this cd.

I've waited a long time for this album to be released on CD. It is so awesome. This was Gladys and the Pips most funky till Visions came along. I love the songs they chose to sing at this point and time. The CD is great.

About Love is the album that was recorded in 1980 and I believe this is the first album GKATP put out on the Columbia label and it is excellent...just excellent. Taste of Bitter Love, Landlord, Get the Love, Add it Up and others are just simply masterpieces of their own. This record was produced by Ashford and Simpson and they did a really incredible job on this. I wish it was on cd but I am happy with the vinyl.

I have been searching for a copy of this CD and thankfully I was able to get perfect copy of this CD delivere on time and in top quality condition. I am thoroughly enjoying this pu
rchase.