Comments for Belle, Regina, Stay With Me

After a debut filled with great vocals sung over mediocre songs, Regina Belle proves on her sophomore release that she is indeed a vocalist to be reckoned with. Her vocals are in top form on the now-pop classics "Baby Come to Me" and "Make it Like it Was"; lesser-heard tunes like "Dream Lover" and "(It`s Gonna Take) All Our Love" certainly didn`t go unheard because they deserved to. And for a ballad singer, Regina does a hell of a job belting out over a driving hip-hop beat on the delightful "Good Lovin`." "What Goes Around" shows a flair for jazzy pop, and "All I Want is Forever," with James JT Taylor of Kool and the Gang, certainly deserves a place amongst the finest pop ballads of the eighties. "It Doesn`t Hurt Anymore" and the aforementioned "Make it Like it Was" are a little too studied in the school of Whitney Houston, and "When Will You Be Mine" isn`t as successful as "Good Lovin`" was with its uptempo funk...for future reference, record producers, a singer like Regina Belle shouldn`t be saying things like "dissin me" and "homeboy" in the intro of a song...leave those teenage trends to the one-name singers of the same age group. But make no mistake, Regina is an adult artist; on "Someday We`ll All Be Free/Save the Children," a beautiful blend of 70`s social-conscious tunes by Marvin Gaye and Donny Hathaway, respectively, Regina gives a performance beyond her years...as she works her way into the final chorus it is virtually impossible to listen without chills; a pop Grammy was certainly missed for this track. These days, Regina is a bit more prolific thanks to the soundtrack for Disney`s "Aladdin," and adult/light jazz stations have picked up on a few of this album`s gems, especially the Anita Baker-ish "This is Love." And while Regina went on to make superior, more original albums, there`s still something to be said for taking the pop/soul formula and doing it well...and on "Stay With Me," Regina Belle does exactly that.