C/D, S/D... Anita Baker...

I'd say "Giving You the Best That I Got" is classic, easily, but I'm sure I've just avoided the duds...

Sade kicks her ass without anu doubt.

Whitney has not a tenth of the singing abilty of Anita but is at least listenable (sometimes).

Also, Toni at some point decided she wanted to act rather than sing.

Seconded.

God, "Sweet Love" still sounds great, but I agree with whoever said upthread that her vocal trills are more mannered than they oughta be.

i got this girl and she wants me to duke her
i told her ill come scoop her around 8 she said SUPER

Giving You The Best That I Got is sublime, son.

SO CLASSIQUE.

hugely underrated stylist

the "new album" referred to upthread, My Everything, is outstanding despite one of the least encouraging album covers ever (a portrait, nominally, but something about it is so Wards-portrait-studio as to make me wonder "who the fuck greenlighted the sleeve?" every time I see it). most of the tracks apparently recorded live by the band, three of them with Anita singing live with them - if you don't go in for quiet-storm-all-smooth jazz stylings, you'd still hate it, but if you do have love for such stuff as I do, it's a hugely slept-on album. At the very least, people who liked her at her most popular should look into a song called "serious" because it is SWEET.

I remember reading that Greil Marcus hated her "conservatism" or some such nonsense. "Sweet Love" and "Watch Your Step" are two of the greatest R&B songs of the era.

He called her "lifestyle music" or something, right?

As for her more-or-less disappearance, didn't she leave the scene to raise her kids? I saw her opening for Maze in the mid-'90s 'cause she wanted to fly back home after the show.

Good Enough, Priceless, and You Belong to Me are all beyond fantastic.

Yeah, her version of "You Belong to Me" is cool. Really smart choice for her.

The "Rapture" album was ace. Did she ever release anything else at all?

The follow-up, Giving You the Best that I Got, was at least as good as Rapture; Compositions is great; My Everything, as I said above, is fantastic if you like what she does. I haven't heard Rhythm of Love, her '94 album, or The Songstress, her solo debut (she came from a group called Chapter 8), but I expect I'll have them eventually; I love the four albums I do have - the word "underrated" is overused but her records really do have a singular vibe, a considerably more lively & invested take on "quiet storm"/"lifestyle music"/whatever you want to call jazz-inflected mid-tempo pop.

<3 Anita Baker; will check out the new one.

(btw if you get curious about Chapter 8, the LP changes hands for big money but its single is on youtube - - pretty great!)

Rapture has enormous personal significance, but The Songstress remains her finest album IMO. Couldn't get enthused about the new one, when a friend played it to me on a late night car journey. I think I might just have been struggling with the genre... it's been a long time, and I couldn't altogether acclimatise.

It's not the sort of sound I can listen to all the time, but I still think she's great.

"Everybody's got opinions about the way our story's gonna END."

"mid 80's poxy synth sounds, rotten shoulder pad/jazzbar/filofax production"

in other words, my favoite music ever?

CLASSIC. definitely search the RAPTURE album ASAP.

fAvoRiTe

"Watch Your Step," y'all.

"You Bring Me Joy," y'all.

christ Been So Long is fantastic.

also the cover of Rapture.. (fans self)

yep -- "Been So Long" sunk its claws into me tonight.

"Same Ole Love (365 Days)" is so fantastic

I should poll this thing, only because it's impossible to choose one perf.

she has a new single, she's in great voice, album coming out, she is the fucking best

I repeat, she is the fucking best

http://www.bet.com/video/celebrationofgospel/2013/performances/donnie-mcclurkin-and-anita-baker.html

fuck it -- I'll poll Rapture. Hoping every song places.

that album is kind of unfuckwitable

Nooooooo.

(Not an RIP.)

Is she still on the run from the cops and the contractor who says she didn't pay for her house work...?

So y'all know

http://www.thefader.com/2018/01/02/anita-baker-final-concert-retirement

i love compositions so much

That's the one I heard most on car trips and remember, "Lonely" in particular.

i just saw her at jazzfest and it was one of the most joyous and powerful experiences i’ve ever had. she kept talking about how exhausted she was, which was fitting, bc she was pouring p much all of her energy into every song. also, what a beautifully preserved voice. the setlist was so perfect i wrote it down:

lady marmalade
mystery
sweet love
been so long
caught up in the rapture
no one in the world
same ol love
just because
giving you the best that i got
fairy tales

"Been So Long"!

gonna go see her next month and I am soooo amped. I'm really hoping she does "serious" from a few years back, that song is a JAM.

joan you are going to have a BLAST

There isn't a week I don't listen to quiet storm that I don't hear "Same Ole Love."

off topic but: maura was watching aerosmith at the same time i was watching anita baker and they played “last child” and “adam’s apple”. wish i could’ve split myself in two

I want underrated aerosmith bootlegs' concert report!

custos put so much work into being the stupidest man alive

Dud. She should be shot out of a cannon into a burning lake of lava. Blecchhh!!!!

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, August 25, 2004 10:40 PM (fourteen years ago

bless

That was uncalled for. I take that one back.

I mean, this is not to say I genuinely care for Anita Baker's music, but I don't believe she should be launchedlike a guided missile into a burning hot pool of roiling magma. She seems like a lovely lady.

Been So Long has surely got one of the all time great vocal performances on record.

Some odd opinions early on here, though to be fair, sixteen years ago i probably couldn't have properly isolated this album from the associations of this as a glovebox cassette in my mum's Honda Civic alongside The Soul Cages, A New Flame and Billy Zane lookalike John James' Big Fat Soul

Same Ole Love <3<3<3

Caught up in this rapture:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiH3fiEM7Ac

Happy birthday!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soZl5t30Lhc