Aretha Franklin: La Diva (Atlantic)
Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 20 March 1980
IT'S NO news that, during the last several years, Aretha Franklin has regressed from being one of our most powerful R&B performers into a mere purveyor of overarranged pap. With disco maven Van McCoy credited as coproducer on eight of La Diva's ten tunes (and "La Diva" all cheesecake and cowboy boots in the front-cover photo), the new record looked like more of the same.
Total word count of piece: 260
