Customer Reviews

Adventures in Paradise

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I remember 1975 like it was yesterday! even though I was 13 years old, I had a unique taste for popular R&B. I was into writers and music. People like Melissa Manchester, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, The Isley Brothers and the slightly offbeat Bette Midler!~ This LP was one of my favorite LP's of the time. Listening to every track as if they were all hit singles! There were few artists who could achieve that interest with me.

Adventures In Paradise was Minnie's second gold LP and the follow-up to her breakthrough, Perfect Angel. It had a more soulfull feel than Angel and faired better on the R&B charts. Inside My Love was the adult sensual follow-up single to Lovin' You. Although it was more in the vein of Sylvia's Pillow Talk, it was too adult for popular radio. It's also one of my favorite songs. Today you may find it on the Foxy Brown soundtrack. It was written by Riperton and her husband Dick Rudolph and Leon Ware. Leon wrote similar songs with Melissa Manchester and produced her and Marvin Gaye. The second single was Simple Things. An optimistic song which also showed her vocal range. The title track is also one of my favorites with it's funky jazzy Earth Wind & Fire hook. Baby This Love I Have could have also been a single as well as the another funky tune called When It Comes Down To It. Minnie could really get busy with material like this! She could also slow the pace with the romantic Alone In Brewster Bay.

If you don't have anything from Minnie, this is the one to get! If you can't get enough, like me, go in this order.
1.Adventures In Paradise
2.Perfect Angel
3.Stay in Love
4.Minnie
5.Come To My Garden
6.Love Lives Forever
7.Best Of or any of her collections...Pearls

In my opinion, this is Minnie's best album. She moved from the the jazz-folk-R&B style on "Perfect Angel" to a more soulful-funky-jazz-latin flavor on "Adventures in Paradise". This album is HOT and sexy. Her passion for love and life really shines on this album. On this album, Minnie shows us the different sides to love...with the ultra sexy "Inside My Love" and the funky "When It Comes Down to It", and the sad "Alone On Brewster Bay". While I LOVE her song writing, its her voice that moves me. Many of today's singer should follow her example.

Ah,The late great Minnie Riperton's Third most remarkable album of 1975! I previously owned this album on cassette back In 1994,
and was thrilled to have It back In my Music Collection this year.What an Incredible singing voice she possessed! I love all the tracks on this record. However my personal favorite Is "Feelin' That You're Feelin' Right. Truly a gem!

"Adventures In Paradise" debut in 1976 and was Minnie's third solo album and the second to hit the charts. This time her and her husband Dick Rudolph team with pianist extraordinaire Joe Sample and "the chef" Leon Ware to make one incredible album. "Adventures In Paradise" was hitting both R&B and Pop charts equally strong.

The title track should be required listening for young and old. With her angelic voice as our guide, we are reminded to cherish and maintain focus of the joys and blessings life brings us. "Brewster Bay" is a timeless classic, as is the ever popular "Inside My Love".

Audio clips from this timeless classic can be found at MinnieRiperton.com.

Incredible album from 1975. One of the greatest female vocalists ever. All fans of Minnie know this is her greatest album. "Inside My Love" is a chill inducing sensual masterpiece. There will never be another vocalist like Minnie. So tragic she passed only 4 years after this release

First off, I LOVE THIS ALBUM! Minnie Riperton's second album was a staple on KUTE 102 in Los Angeles when it came out in 1975. On it, Minnie assembled 10 tracks on love: lovin' another("Baby This Love I Have," "Inside My Love") and lovin' yourself ("Feelin' That Your Feelin's Right," "Don't Let Anyone Bring You Down") that hit the emotional mark. Her vocals are declarative ("When it Comes Down to It"), sensuos ("Alone on Brewster Bay")and always just right. This was the follow-up to the classic "Perfect Angel" and it didn't disappoint. It validated that Minnie was a talent to be reckoned with; an original artist with much to say. With both these albums, the "Stay in Love" album of 1977 and the "Minnie" album of 1979 (which was her last), Minnie gave us four of the best albums of the '70's and was an artist that influenced many female vocalists to come after her. A CLASSIC.

This is Minnie Riperton's BEST album. In her short life, Minnie's vocal genius shone through her pain and suffering at the hands of cancer. Although it is almost 22 years since we lost her, her work has finally been recognised for what it was then and is now - the finest female vocals you will ever hear. Buy this work, take it home, put on the CD and turn up the volume and go straight to where Minnie is - Heaven.

Much in the same vein of "Perfect Angel," "Adventures in Paradise" gives us Minnie fans the same real deal that made Miss Minnie a household name only one year prior. Although there is no "Loving You" here, there IS the rich, thick and dreamy, "Inside Your Love," which has been a Quiet Storm classic for years. Things also take a turn from the Rock/Pop of "Perfect Angel" and fall into more R&B/Soul stylings of the 70's before Disco had set in. Also noteworthy are the title cut which finds her REALLY showing off those higher octaves which she was known for (at the end of the song), the gorgeous (and mostly instrumental, "Minnie's Lament,") and the sweet and salty, "Alone in Brewster Bay," a beautifully composed and arranged acoustic tribute to what I'm guessing might have been a favorite vacationing spot of hers and Richard's on Cape Cod (Massachusetts.) Although she's not here with an ice cream cone melting down her fingers, the same passion/innocence is still firmly set in these songs, and by the front cover photo, one can deduce that the music contained herein is sufficient enough to calm ANY wild beast. Long live the sweet and soulful songbird. xo

"If you only listen to "Alone On Brewster Bay" while watching a real fire in a real fireplace, you will experience the feelings within life that are few and far between. Although--those are the feelings you want to have in your life all the time. Almost every song is a gem. "Simple Things" is exactly that, and "Simply" Beautiful! "Inside My Love" again "Simply" Beautiful. "Love & Its Glory" truly is about "Love & Its Glory"--with hope thrown in "on the side." This CD is a romantic interlude taking the listener to the heights of the "sky" mentioned in "Alone On Brewster Bay."

One might say that the cost of the import is too high; however, when one considers that Ripperton was one of the great voices of the 20th century, the price is well worth it.

"Adventures in Paradise" was produced at a time when Epic was unsure of what to do with the very talented Miss Riperton. Thus, they tried to saddle her with a disco song in the form of "Stick Together." Not necessarily her forte, the singer still managed to lift it above the norm of the time and come away with dignity intact.

However, the artist shines on several other cuts geared more for her dynamic style and eight-octave range. Riperton scores on the other uptempo numbers "Young, Willing and Able" and "Oh Darlin'...Life Goes On." The pop tune "Wouldn't Matter Where You Are" is also enjoyable.

But, the singer is best shown on the seductive "Can You Feel What I'm Saying" and the poignant "Stay in Love." These two ballads are the type of songs for which Riperton was vocal perfection.

A harmonic angel was she!