What You See Is What You Sweat [Import]

1. Everyday People

2. Ever Changing Times - Aretha Franklin, Michael McDonald

3. What You See Is What You Sweat

4. Mary Goes Around

5. I Dreamed a Dream

6. Someone Else's Eyes

7. You Can't Take Me for Granted

8. What Did You Give

9. Everyday People [Remix]

10. Doctor's Orders - Aretha Franklin, Luther Vandross

What You See Is What You Sweat,Aretha Franklin,Bmg Int'l,Pop,R&B,R&B/Soul

Average customer rating:

What You See is What You Sweat
Aretha Franklin
Manufacturer: Arista
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | R&B | Styles | Music

General | Soul | R&B | Styles | Music
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Who's Zoomin' Who?
Aretha

ASIN: B000008FS4
Release Date: 1991-07-02

Tracks:

Everyday People
Ever Changing Times
What You See Is What You Sweat
Mary Goes Round
I Dreamed A Dream
Someone Else's Eyes
Doctor's Orders
You Can't Take Me For Granted
What Did You Give
Everyday People (Remix)

Average customer rating:

Attempt at a Paula Abdul dance sound doesn't work here
aint sweatin over this...
How can one sweat when there is no HEAT?
What you expect is not what you get
One of the high points of Aretha's Arista career

What You See Is What You Sweat
Aretha Franklin
Manufacturer: Bmg Int'l
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | R&B | Styles | Music

General | Soul | R&B | Styles | Music

R&B | Imports | Stores | Music
ASIN: B000006YT1
Release Date: 2001-05-08

Tracks:

Everyday People
Ever Changing Times - Aretha Franklin, Michael McDonald, Michael McDonald
What You See Is What You Sweat
Mary Goes Around
I Dreamed a Dream
Someone Else's Eyes
You Can't Take Me for Granted
What Did You Give
Everyday People [Remix]
Doctor's Orders

Customer Reviews:

Attempt at a Paula Abdul dance sound doesn't work here.......2005-01-28

Aretha Franklin has always made quality music. Her reign as the Queen of Soul will never be replaced. But What You See Is What You Sweat is not one of her best albums. There's too much of attempt of her trying to go for that Paula Abdul dance sound on most of the uptempo numbers. Only Everyday People stands out because it's funky. But the other songs like Mary Goes Round, and the lame title song the members of Surface did, come off flat. Aretha sounds out of place on them and it would sound best if Paula or Janet Jackson did the songs. Doctor's Orders with Luther Vandross doesn't grab me. Everchanging Times with Michael McDonald and You Can't Take Me For Granted are both elegant ballads. But they seem lost on this dance driven album that doesn't fit with Aretha's always soulful voice.

aint sweatin over this..........2003-10-27

"Who's Zoomin' Who?" was one of her best Arista albums, while this has to be one of the worst. As much as I love Aretha's work.. this album just doesn't cut it at all.. Featuring ten cuts (well, nine without the remix), and eleven (count 'em!) producers (including Burt Bacharach, Carole Bayer-Sager, Michael Legrand, and Bruce Roberts), this goes from one overblown mess, to cliche'd snoozefest and back again..

The album starts off with a useless remake of Sly Stone's "Everyday People" (produced by frequent collaborator Narada Michael Walden). Which ultimately sounds like a showcase for every bit of grating, annoying, vapid early 90's production values... Aretha and the backing choir tunelessly emoting to the equally tuneless production, and not to mention that ridiculous, fake synthesized piano (which must have been on a million records at the time).. From there it does get a little better. "Ever Changing Times" (with Michael McDonald) is fairly pleasant, as is the title track (produced by David Conley and David Townsend of Surface).. And then we're right back where we started with "Mary Goes Round" (produced by Oliver Lieber and Elliott Wolff, who did most of Paula Abdul's hits), which would have been good, if it weren't such a ridiculous song. Needless to say, I don't think she should have been doing Paula Abdul rejects at this stage in her career...

And as if it couldn't sink any lower, the Luther Vandross duet "Doctor's Orders" (also produced by Vandross). once again revisiting even more bombastic, vapid, grating early 90s production values.. From here the only highlight is "You Can't Take Me For Granted" produced by Aretha herself.. which rises above the rest, but even that's not saying too much..

And then to top it all off, they end the album with a Shep Pettibone remix of "Everyday People".. as if they needed one more thing to being this ship down....Despite those glowing liner notes (someone must have been insecure about the final product to have commissioned that!) this is just a disappointment. Hell, even the album cover is awful.. The title, the cover photo, the layout.. some great pictures inside, unfortunately they picked the worst one for the cover.. aint that nice.

Needless to say, I don't think this will be on anyone's "essential" list... Even 1979's much maligned "La Diva" album (which I quite enjoy) was infinitely better than this tripe....Thankfully, The Queen made a glorious return to form seven years later with "A Rose Is Still A Rose". In all, this album is not recommended to anyone but completists.

How can one sweat when there is no HEAT?.......2003-03-08

Sorry, but this is only an album for fans, of which I am one. It features some likeable tunes but it is far below anything done by the "The Queen of Soul".

What you expect is not what you get.......2002-11-26

I was really disappointed with this cd by Aretha.
It had all the potentiality to be a hit and it turns out...this!
Burt Bacharach and Carole Bayer Sager definitely wrote better tracks than the ones handed over to Aretha for this album.
Must admit the one with Michael Mcdonald is good, though - maybe with having in mind their previous # 1 smash sung by michael and Patti LaBelle?.
The dancefloor tunes are ok, EVERYDAY PEOPLE is infectuous and the title track is very '90's R'n'B.
The duet with Luther Vandross DOCTOR'S ORDERS is fun and uptempo, a grammy nominee...maybe a winner too? Can't remember...
The rest is very mediocre; given the fact the woman's voice is no longer the one of the '60's/'70's and '80's is no excuse...
Feels like all this material has been thrown in too fast to have an Aretha Franklin release on the market.
Better job next time, 'Ree!

One of the high points of Aretha's Arista career.......2001-12-10

The fact that this album was not laden with duets makes it worth your while. There's only two -- the mediocre "Doctor's Orders" with Luther Vandross and the timeless "Ever Changing Times" with Michael McDonald (compared with FOUR duets from the album prior to this one!). The other cuts are 100% Aretha, doing all of the vocal acrobatics and imparting the passion you'd expect from the Queen.

The only reason I give this album 4 stars instead of 5 is because she's not quite in top voice (this album is recorded a couple years before she gave up the smokes; she sounds a little raspy on some cuts, and out of breath on others, with her upper range sounding quite gritty). However, Aretha "not in top voice" is still way better than a lot of the "divas" we have to choose from today!

The main point is whether or not Ree puts her heart into it, and I can tell you she does. "I Dreamed A Dream" was performed for the President at the 1993 Inaugural Convention, and the studio version almost captures that magic. "Everyday People," especially the remix by Shep Pettibone, is the best of early 90's R&B/soul. "What Did You Give," an original Aretha composition, is a great song, as are the classic "You Can't Take Me For Granted" and the title track.

This CD is a good sample of R&B/soul from 1991, well-produced and enjoyable. The fact that Ree is the center of what's going on makes it all the more worth buying. Enjoy!

What You See Is What You Sweat
Average customer rating:
What You See Is What You Sweat

Manufacturer: Arista Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD
ASIN: B000CCXFJO