Phoebe Snow

Never Letting Go is framed by two copious ballads on which Phoebe Snow sings with an
intellectual and emotional understanding joined to a technical mastery that no current
popular singer can equal. The rest of Never Letting Go fritters itself away on seven trivial
songs, five of them written by Snow. In her repeated attempts to compose memorable pop
laments, Snow lacks a felicitous verbal touch. The conceit of "Majesty of Life" is... More >

By now Snow projects a jazz singer's assurance, and though the originals are still overshadowed by the covers I'd like to hear Tammy Wynette try "Majesty of Life," about "what can happen to a girl in her hometown." But the tempos are invariably too reflective, and the reprises invariably too much. (Grade: B)