As big a hit as it was -- and it was a multi-platinum blockbuster, spinning off several chart-toppers -- it's not easy to think of 's 1985 debut as the dawning of a new era, but it was. Arriving in the thick of , when the slick sounds of yacht-soul were fading, is the foundation of diva-pop, straddling clean, cheery R&B and big ballads designed with the adult contemporary audience in mind. 's background lay in the former -- actually, it was even riskier, encompassing a stint with the experimental outfit -- and her benefactor knew all about selling records to the masses. Appealing as this album is, may never have imagined how would shift tastes, pushing toward skyscraping ballads where the singer's affectations, not the songs, were paramount -- a move that later led to hollow records, but on the songs were as important as the immaculate productions. Certainly, the showstopping provided the blueprint for decades of divas, but it's the only overblown moment here, with the rest of the ballads -- notably and -- burning slowly and seductively, but what really impresses some 20-plus years on are the lighter tracks, particularly the breakthrough single and the unheralded a dance/R&B hit co-written by that remains one of 's purest pop pleasures. These joyful, rhythmic moments faded away from 's later work -- and also rarely surfaced on the records of those who followed her -- but their presence on this debut turns this into a fully rounded record, the rare debut that manages to telegraph every aspect of an artist's career in a mere ten songs. [The 2010 25th anniversary edition of is expanded with five bonus tracks -- remixes of a live version of from 1990, and a superfluous a cappella mix of -- and a bonus DVD containing music videos from the album, new interviews, and -- best of all -- 's star-making 1983 performance on .] ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine