Pillow Talk: The Sensuous Sounds of Sylvia

Album Review

20-track compilation drawn primarily from her mid-'70s albums, adding four songs from non-LP singles of the era, and a couple of cuts from 1982 Sugar Hill singles. It can get a little gooey over the course of its 79 minutes, not to mention a bit comically unsubtle at times. Her cover of Marvin Gaye's "You Sure Love to Ball," to take one example, would be raunchy enough to ruin the day of many a Republican delegate even 20 years later, when such sexual come-ons are far more commonplace on the radio. It's not all candlelight-on-the-way-to-the-bedroom stuff, though. "My Thing" (the flip of "Pillow Talk") proves she could sing fairly straight soul when given the inclination, and "Sunday" and "Not on the Outside" are sparsely produced ballads, sung with great tenderness. They make one wish that Sylvia had pursued a somewhat more versatile direction during the '70s, but there's no question that the "Pillow Talk" was bringing in the bacon, and this compilation supplies it in droves.