Roberta Flack

Roberta Flack's first two albums are near-perfect, but her sophisticated, slow-burning approach was finding favor in jazz, not pop, circles. All that changed after fan Clint Eastwood featured one of Flack's old tunes, "The First Time I Ever Saw Your Face," in his movie "Play Misty For Me." Ironically, Flack's back catalogue was suddenly selling so well that this one got lost. Her searing reading of "Bridge Over Troubled Waters" is even more beautiful than Aretha Franklin's and her soul-deep treatment of the Bee Gees' "To Love Somebody" turned the number into an R&B standard.

Roberta Flack is a moving, vibrant performer whose strengths have only occasionally been
captured on record. They have almost totally eluded this latest effort, leaving us instead
with a rather dismaying catalogue of her weaknesses. Part of the problem is that Miss
Flack's dramatic style–the intensity and tension that often gives her such presence and
power on stage frequently translates to records as mere heavy-handedness. Sh... More >

Flack is generally regarded as the most significant new black woman singer since Aretha Franklin, and at moments she sounds kind, intelligent, and very likable. But she often exhibits the gratuitous gentility you'd expect of someone who says "between you and I." Until she crackles a bit, forget about significance and listen to Ann Peebles. (Grade: C)