Back to the familiar past

Reunions are a tricky business. How does one tell whether the "old magic" is too old to work? Fortunately, in the case of Barbra Streisand and Barry Gibb, the magic hasn’t faded for them not to pull another rabbit out of the hat.

The first time that Streisand and Gibb teamed up, they produced Guilty. The collaboration was one of the most celebrated in pop music history. The New York Times called it "a sensational blending of talents. As a pop confection celebrating the giddiest extremes of the star ethos, Guilty is just about perfect." The album remains Streisand’s most commercially successful work, a best-seller in 12 countries, including Russia. It also won for the pair four Grammy nominations (including one for Album of the Year) and a Grammy award for Best Pop Vocal by Duo or Group.

Twenty-five years since Guilty, Streisand and Gibb reunite for Guilty Pleasures. Following their previous arrangement, Gibb wrote and produced the songs, while Streisand sang them. Gibb also lends his inimitable vocals in a number of the songs. Guilty Pleasures is Streisand’s first pop album since 1987’s Till I Love You, her third album of new recordings in the new millennium, and her 61st album overall. When it debuted two weeks ago in the US (at number one on the Internet chart and at number five on the "Hot 100"), it also made Streisand one of the very few artists to have a hit album in five consecutive decades.

At 62, Streisand no longer has the supersonic voice that made Ethel Merman christen her as "the new belter" back in 1963. Nor is the range as ecumenical as it used to be. What to make of a diminished thing? A lot. The instrument is still well tuned. This album has her covering, with relative ease, a variety of musical styles: bossa nova (Hideaway and Golden Dawn), disco (Night of My Life), light rock (Stranger in a Strange Land), and even Indian pop (All the Children). As such, the album recalls and accomplishes with greater success what the experimental Barbra Streisand and Other Musical Instruments tried to do in 1973. It also affirms Gibb’s versatility as a songwriter.

As in Guilty, there are two duets: Come Tomorrow and Above the Law, the last easily the most infectious piece in the collection. These are welcome recordings, for since 1993’s Back to Broadway, Streisand’s musical output has been too serious for comfort–recall her near cheerless holiday album Christmas Memories. These duets remind listeners that she can be fun when she chooses to. There’s something of Mother Focker in her yet, and less of "Mecha Streisand."

The political Barbra is heard in Stranger in a Strange Land. The song takes a less polarizing view about the war in Iraq, but the conviction is not any less strongly expressed. The coda is military march, although it may remind one of the refrain of the Little Drummer Boy. The dramatic Barbra finally emerges in Letting Go. Backed by only the piano in this number, she further solidifies her position as the best interpreter of her generation.

Twenty-five years, however, are 25 years; and some of the songs may sound 25 years too late. That the album begins with the ’50s-sounding Come Tomorrow is perhaps telling. There are strains of Streisand’s ’70s hit My Heart Belongs to Me in Hideaway; and I’ll Be There by the Jackson Five lurks behind It’s Up to You. Night of My Life takes one back to the days of You Must Be Dancing, More than a Woman, and Saturday Night Fever, although in this case the flashback is surely deliberate. Oddly, the remake of (Our Love) Don’t Throw It All Away, originally recorded by the late Andy Gibb, sounds the least dated of the recordings.

That this album is not as today as it could be diminishes the album’s chances of producing another Woman in Love, the ’80s equivalent of And I Will Always Love You and My Heart Will Go on. Ultimately, however, it is nothing to feel guilty about. Guilty Pleasures is a respite from the run of hip-hop music practically monopolizing the airwaves today. Reunions, after all, bring one back to the familiar past. In the case of Guilty Pleasures, the experience is both refreshing and comforting, as is the spectacle of an expert magician pulling rabbits out of an old hat, after the dizzying lights and noise of the circus.