Consumer Guide Album

Labelle: Pressure Cookin' [RCA Victor, 1973]
This certainly is a drastic improvement, although because Nona Hendryx still has trouble writing discernible melodies it demands more concentration than it's worth. What's changed is the arrangements--the backing musicians, especially keyboard honcho Andre Lewis (although each of the others puts a mark on at least one cut), achieve a jazz r&b that gives the voices (all of them) room to groove. Patti LaBelle pulls out all the stops dynamically, but she also puts them back in--there's drama as well as declamation here--and on "Hollywood" and "Let Me See You in the Light" Hendryx gives her some lines. The covers don't hurt either--whoever had the idea of segueing from Thunderclap Newman to Gil Scott-Heron did justice to this noble group concept, and Stevie Wonder proved himself a true friend. B