Barbra Streisand - Release Me 2 (2021)

There is no one like Barbra Streisand. There's never been a singer like her. As Release Me 2 proves over and over again, even a duet with a frog puppet can be magic if it includes her voice. But… Release Me 2 is pure audible catnip, a career-stretching, for-fans release of all previously unreleased tracks (and companion to 2012's first volume). Like any truly great singer, Streisand makes each song here her own. Most comfortable in lush arrangements that allow her to soar, and ever willing to wade into schmaltz no matter how many violins, flutes or glockenspiels are involved, she's notoriously careful to choose settings for her incredible instrument that exude a certain epic crooner vibe. On an album in which none of the players behind her are given credit, this old pro easily knocks numbers like Michel Legrand's "Once You've Been in Love" or the Arlen/Harburg chestnut "Right as the Rain," (recorded in 1962 before her first album) out of the park. Her sweeping rendition of the Bacharach/David tune "Be Aware" from 1971—a practice run for a TV performance—is masterful. Perhaps the most sure-footed phraser in all of American popular music, equaled only by Garland and Sinatra, Streisand just doesn't make mistakes. And she can be game to a point with material as well. As referenced above, her 1979 re-envisioning of "Rainbow Connection" with Kermit the Frog is a classic of sorts, as she soars over his monotone. "If Only You Were Mine," from her 2005 album Guilty Pleasures with Barry Gibb is playful with Streisand adding spoken asides. And her duet with Willie Nelson, "I Want It To Be You," is the perfect blend of her studied creaminess and his talky cragginess. But let's get back to that first BUT. Listening to all the gloss here makes an adventurous listener wonder, especially in a collection of unreleased tracks: but what about pushing the envelope? Streisand works in a very tightly controlled stylistic range. She even art directed this project. Here when she steps out of her comfort zone into Randy Newman's "Living Without You," it suffers from trying too hard. It's unavoidable to wonder what her magnificent instrument could do if she'd challenged herself with more interesting material. A blues tune? Something with a little funk? A Pearl Jam cover? But idle speculation aside, this is supremely top shelf Streisand—not a note out of place and her voice ever confident and gleaming.

TRACKLIST

01. Be Aware
02. You Light Up My Life
03. I'd Want It To Be You (with Willie Nelson)
04. Sweet Forgiveness
05. Living Without You
06. One Day (A Prayer)
07. Rainbow Connection (with Kermit The Frog)
08. Right As The Rain
09. If Only You Were Mine (with Barry Gibb)
10. Once You've Been In Love