Softly With These... [Remaster] [Slipcase]

Roberta Flack was blessed with one of the loveliest, most soothing voices in the music industry. In the 1970s, she not only appealed to pop and R&B audiences, but also fit in with the era's more serious, sensitive singer/songwriters. She scored some of the decade's biggest hits with classics such as "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face," "Killing Me Softly with His Song," and "Feel Like Making Love," as well as her legendary duets with Donny Hathaway, all which have gone on to become standards in the pop pantheon. This single-disc set attempts to collect her best and most successful recordings from the 1970s to the 1990s, when she enjoyed the success of another Top Ten hit with Diane Warren's "Set the Night to Music" (with Maxi Priest). However, this ambitious collection, even with such stellar material, proves a little frustrating due to the omission of several key tracks from Flack's catalog, among those "Jesse," "If I Ever See You Again," "You've Got a Friend," and several others. It does, however, manage to incorporate other Flack collectibles, including her soundtrack hit "Making Love," her hit with Peabo Bryson, "Tonight I Celebrate My Love," her lovely, breezy, chart-topping 1988 R&B hit "Oasis," and a sleek 1990s house track, "Uh-Uh Ooh-Ooh Look Out (Here It Comes)." This ambitious yet frustrating collection not only highlights Flack's long, illustrious career, but also brings to attention the fact that a multi-disc retrospective on this legendary singer would be a most welcome addition to her catalog. ~ Jose F. Promis