Workin' Overtime [CD]

Diana Ross | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD
• Original Release Date: 1989
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: CD
• Label: Motown
• ASIN: B000F5OA7E
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #180,343 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Original Motown 1989 Release Mastered on Compact Disc.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Say We Can!, March 30, 2003

By 

"alamsami" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Diana Workin' Overtime (Audio CD)

In the late 1980's Diana returns back to Motown.

Tracklisting:
1) Workin' Overtime
2) Say We Can
3) Take The Bitter With The Sweet
4) Bottom Line
5) This House
6) Paradise
7) Keep On (Dancin')
8) What Can One Person Do
9) Goin' Through The Motions
10) We Stand Together

Diana commented at the time 'Workin' Overtime': "It's a new day for both Motown and myself. For me, it's an opportunity to put back into the music industry some of the knowledge that i've gained. I especially want to use my experience to guide younger talents as they start their careers. My return also reflects my belief in Motown as a label capable of tapping the energy and style of today's youth".

The Results, Sadly the album was a commercial disaster. With all its hype, it disappointed a lot of fans and although it climbed to No.23 on the U.K album charts it just went by unnoticed.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not all that bad, May 10, 2010

By 

Diana (Illinois) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Workin' Overtime (Audio CD)

When I first got this album, I thought the only good song on it was the title track, Workin' Overtime. But recently, I have the album another chance and listend to it all the way through again, and now I've really come to like several of the songs. Yes, it's dated New Jack Swing music, but there are good songs. Say We Can and Paradise are fun dance tracks, Going Through The Motions is a good mid-tempo song and This House is a beautiful New Jack Swing ballad. The rest of the songs I don't really care for, but 5 of the 10 tracks are good, so I give this a solid 3 star rating.

2.0 out of 5 stars Wish I Could Say This Was Good..., December 7, 2010

By 

markus king "markus" (Winston-Salem, NC United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Workin' Overtime (Audio CD)

I first bought this album not long after it was released in 1989. I was a teenager at the time, loved Diana...and while I wasn't a big fan of the song, I was thrilled to see the title track getting heavy rotation on BET and attention from R&B radio.

I bought the album and was VERY disappointed. It came across as overproduced, a somewhat cheesy production (even in 1989!) that sounded like faux Hip Hop, and amateurish songwriting- some of it downright embarrassing. The R&B/dance female stars of this point were the likes of Jody Watley, Karyn White, Vanessa Williams. And played alongside their recent albums, WORKIN' OVERTIME suffered in comparison.

20 years forward, I bought the album again (trying to complete my Diana collection), and gave it another chance. And try as I may, I still don't like it.

The album opens with the title track, an R&B Top 10 hit that failed to crossover. It IS one of the best tracks on the album, even if the lyrics are a bit on the vapid side and the cheese still permeates. It's catchy and harmless fun.

As it fades out, you suddenly hear Diana exclaim "Hey Nile, put up the horns!" The shrill sound of (synthesized) horns chimes in, and you know you're in trouble when you hear Diana declare "right on" and "it's happening". I don't know where Diana or Nile Rodgers were spending time in 1989, but NO ONE was using that terminology by that point. Okay, it might've sounded contrived to have her say "it's dope" or "fly", but this just makes her sound stuck in a time warp. The song is "Say We Can", which actually isn't a bad number once you get past that intro. The production (faux horns notwithstanding) is lively, the lyrics are inoffensive and the melody simple and clear.

It goes downhill on the next track, "Take the Bitter With the Sweet", where a fairly decent production is ruined by some lousy lyrics (are those backup singers really saying "take the bitter with the sweet, TWEET"!? What's the TWEET for?) and Diana's voice straining to get through parts of it, screaming uncomfortably high at the bridge.

This is a problem throughout the album- her vocals are really high at points. More often than not she can pull it off, but this is just too close for comfort.

Next is actually one of the best tracks of the album, "Bottom Line". Infectious, sly and sexy, the song has a great commercial production (reminiscent of Jody Watley's "Real Love", slowed down a bit), decent lyrics and a great hook. It's also doubtless one of (if not THE) most commercial numbers on the album. Diana sounds comfortable and at ease (probably moreso than any of the other uptempo tracks).

What's shocking is, Motown wanted THIS to be the leadoff single. Diana fought for the title track and ultimately won. One can only imagine what the project's fate may have been had "Bottom Line"- which had the potential to cross over- been the single to introduce the album.

Side A closes with "This House", one of the better Nile Rodgers lyrics here, a tender moment that, by this point, is sorely needed. I don't think it was a good choice for 2nd single, but, for a singer who made as much of a name with ballads as with dance songs, this is a welcome respite.

Side B commences with another agreeable dance song, "Paradise". Although the Shep Pettibone remix is better, this is enjoyable and spacious, with a clear, simple lyric. None of these superlatives can be given to "Keep On (Dancin)'", easily the worst song on the entire album. The melody is nearly non-existent, the lyrics are so sophmoric, cliched and poorly grouped it sounds like poetry from an 11 year old, and Diana is once again straining to hit ridiculously high notes. The song is, quite honestly, painful in parts.

"What Can One Person Do" is only marginally better than it's predecessor. The lyrics are (once again) trite and vapid, and Diana is straining to hit notes again. At least the song has more structure and melody than the last one.

"Goin' Through the Motions" is closer to "Say We Can" and "Bottom Line"- it's uptempo, but Diana is in a more comfortable zone vocally and, while still mediocre, it's a vast improvement over the last two songs. Unfortunately, the ballad and album closer "We Stand Together" returns us to the same issues we've had throughout. The lyrics are soooooo contrived and clumsy ("in the words of a playright, 'one is not enough to experience the act called love'..." HUH?), and Diana is straining more than she has on any of the preceding songs, ESPECIALLY as she finishes the above-quoted line. It's really, really bad.

20 years on, it hasnt aged well, at all.

Aside from a couple of all-too-brief standouts, this is probably the worst studio album of Diana's 40 year solo career.