Anita Baker

Her second album made Anita Baker a success. Her solo debut, The Songstress, was excellent but little-heard; Rapture (1986) soared to the top of the charts. The gentle, jazz-tinged songs gave Baker full range to stretch out her fabulous voice, and they found years of favor with Quiet Storm fans. Hits include "Sweet Love" and "Caught Up in the Rapture."

By the standards of today's superdivas, this is a modest album. There are no traces of the
wailing matron Patti La Belle or the teen vamp Janet Jackson, nothing of Whitney Houston's
yuppie melodrama. Baker just sings, and in these days of vocal extravaganzàs, Rapture is
an unexaggerated delight. It's also a difficult one to tackle. Baker's voice is a husky gurgle,
somewhere between Sarah Vaughan and Joan Armatrading, and though she pri... More >

Having listened far more than natural inclination dictated, I've become actively annoyed with this vocal watershed. From its strong lounge-jazz beat to its conscious avoidance of distracting lyrical detail, it's all husky, burnished mood, the fulfillment of the quiet-storm format black radio devised to lure staider customers away from white-bread temptations like soft rock and easy listening. God knows it's more soulful, and sexier, too, but that's all it is--a reification of the human voice as vehicle of an expression purer than expression ever ought to be. (Grade - B-)