Martha Reeves

• Martha Reeves [MCA, 1974] C+

Consumer Guide Reviews:

Martha Reeves [MCA, 1974]
This attempted masterpiece doesn't make it because Richard Perry has failed the fundamental test of the interpretive producer--matching performer and material. To an extent, this is Reeves's fault--her gorgeous voice has trouble gripping complicated ideas. But it's also true that the competition for undiscovered song gems has stiffened since the early days of Cocker and Three Dog Night, so that even a prospector as wily as Perry hopes to dig one out of a slag heap like Vini Poncia. The strongest cuts here ("Wild Nights," "Imagination") have bene recorded definitively elsewhere. Which makes this the modern, big-budget equivalent of a second-rate Motown album. C+