DIANA ROSS - DIANA ROSS EXPANDED EDITION
IMS / UMC

The second self-titled album from Diana Ross – known to fans as The Black Album – was first released in 1976, and is now re-released as a two disc special edition – the musical answer to the extras-laden DVD, with 28 extra tracks including singles, alternate versions, rarities and an interview, along with a 24 page booklet. I would be surprised if Diana Ross had the sort of fanatical following that will snap up every recoding made by their idol – it tends to be the province of cult bands rather than mainstream superstars - but I might be wrong. In any case, it’s an impressive package that should be enough of a tipping point for anyone who hasn’t already bought a copy of the album. And if you don’t own this record already, then you should.

Now, I’ve never considered myself to be a Diana Ross fan – much as I admire the work of The Supremes and some of the solo Motown singles, I’m not impressed by divas and their antics, so I’ve generally ignored her output. Listening to this album, I’m thinking that was a mistake.

The original LP is close to being a masterpiece. Moving on from the soul of the Supremes, it’s the work of a more mature artist, as the opening track Theme From Mahogany (Do You Know Where You’re Going To) attests – an evocative ballad that manages to be ethereal and epic at the same time. The same could be said of I Thought It Took a Little Time (But Today I Fell in Love), and then things get a lot funkier with Love Hangover, an eight minute track that starts out as a soulful ballad before suddenly lurching into proto-disco. It shouldn’t work, and almost doesn’t, but the cumulative effect is undeniably infectious.

After this, the dated, jazz-flavoured Kiss Me Now and middling funk tune You’re Good My Child are a bit of a letdown; the former is the main reason why the album doesn’t quite reach the level of masterpiece, while the latter, although a solid enough track, feels a little ordinary after what we’ve already heard.

One Love in My Lifetime is an infectiously grooving, feel-good R&B number, getting things back on track, and things stay impressive with Ain’t Nothing But a Maybe, a soulful ballad that ebbs and flows with a thoroughly catchy chorus.

The album ends with sweet romantic ballad After You and an effectively bittersweet cover of Smile (originally an instrumental from Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times, and first recorded as a vocal version by Nat King Cole).

The additional material opens up with a handful of singles – the country song Sorry Doesn’t Always Make It Right is the most interesting, if only because it shows the direction Ross may have been pushed in if it wasn’t for this album, though the dance remix of One Love in My Lifetime is an interesting folly. The rest of the tracks are either alternate cuts, or tracks recorded during this album’s sessions but not used until later – or both, in the case of To Love Again, which appeared on her 1978 album Ross, but here appears with an unheard French language intro. Most of these tracks are not radically different from the released versions, but the alternate version of Love Hangover – also included as a 4 minute seven inch cut-down – is better than the official version – stripped down, bass driven and with a single-take vocal rejected from the final cut. It’s thirty seconds longer and why this version was rejected is a mystery.

Wrapping things up are freshly remixed tracks including a non-great cover of Elton John’s Harmony and the funky Sly Stone numbers Le Lo Li and Go Where Your Mind Is.

Ultimately, this new version doesn’t add much that is essential – arguably, the good stuff could’ve all fitted on one disc – but it is a pretty definitive collection, and any decent music collection will be enhanced by the presence of this album. Highly recommended.

DAVID FLINT

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