A noble, if failed, experiment.
Diana Ross
teamed up with
Steely Dan
producer
Gary Katz
for this, her third outing on
RCA
.
Katz
brought in the usual suspects, not only buddies like
Michael McDonald
and
Donald Fagen
(each of whom contributed a song and keyboards), but also session aces like
Jeff Porcaro
Greg Phillinganes
. The result, on the five tracks
handled, has that precise, icy sound those guys always get, not a sound that meshes well with
Ross
. No better are the two tracks contributed by
Ray Parker, Jr.
, or
' own effort,
"Girls,"
which closes things out. As a result,
was
' first album since 1978 not to even go gold. (Not to be confused with
' 1978 album [
Motown
907] of the same name.) ~ William Ruhlmann