Sheena Easton
bounced back from her unattractive 1987 split from
EMI
with her most decidedly
urban
set to date. Enlisting the help of
R&B
production heavyweights
L.A. Reid
and
Babyface
-- as well as
Angela Winbush
,
Jellybean
Prince
, she came out with a youthful and trend-savvy offering that has some fun moments, but overall is too formulaic to really say much. The snazzy
number
"The Lover in Me"
(number two
pop
, number five
) is one of the album's most solid, memorable moments, but it soon becomes hard to distinguish from
"Days Like This,"
"No Deposit, No Return"
"One Love"
-- three other selections produced by the duo.
Easton
was apparently becoming more of a producer's puppet than she planned early in her career, as further evidenced by the synthetic
"Without You,"
which is too low in the singer's range to be effective to start with. Luckily, a few saving moments do surface: the
Winbush
-produced
"Fire and Rain,"
a calming
quiet storm
ballad that allows
to showcase a more vulnerable side of her voice; and the
-penned
"101,"
a subtly haunting, understated dance romp with what is one of the singer's most passionate, revealing performances on record. Otherwise, this is a fun record, but a bit too monotonous. [The 2006 reissue includes four remixes as a bonus.] ~ Justin M. Kantor