Your Secret Love
Luther Vandross' tenth new studio album has much in common with its predecessors. It is filled with midtempo love ballads in which Vandross emotes over tasteful R&B gospel arrangements, mostly writing his own songs, but also finding room for a couple of pop favorites -- in this case, Stevie Wonder's "Knocks Me Off My Feet" and the old Little Anthony and the Imperials hit "Goin' Out of My Head." As steeped as he is in the nomenclature of R&B vocal expressionism, Vandross as usual sounds more self-involved than romantically devoted. His references have always seemed not so much real emotions as other love songs, which makes him something of an anomaly: a formalist in a field at least nominally defined by excess of feeling. Of course, that's always been something of a conceit, which may be why the traditional R&B audience faithfully takes Vandross to its bosom each time out, while his relationship to the pop audience, after a flirtation in the early '90s, remains largely unconsummated. He may profess "Endless Love," but pop fans are only willing to believe him when he's singing with a diva like Mariah Carey Give Vandross credit, he wants to be taken on his own terms, which is why he released his own songs, the title track and "I Can Make It Better," as the singles instead of going for a trendy R&B hit with "I Can't Wait No Longer (Let's Do This)," which features a rap by Deidra "Spin" Roper of Salt-N-Pepa or trying to make "Goin' Out of My Head" a pop hit for the third time. Such integrity is probably what kept the album from selling beyond Vandross' existing fan base; lucky for him, there were a million of them. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
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Credits »
Luther Vandross - Arranger
Luther Vandross - Producer
Luther Vandross - Main Performer
Luther Vandross - Executive Producer
Luther Vandross - Vocal Arrangement
Jeremy Lubbock - Arranger
Jeremy Lubbock - Conductor
Al Brown - Strings Contractor
Lisa Fischer - Performer
Skip Anderson - Arranger
Skip Anderson - ?
Skip Anderson - String Arrangements
Skip Anderson - Keyboard Programming
Skip Anderson - Synthesizer Arrangements
Skip Anderson - Synthesizer Orchestration
Ray Bardani - Engineer
Ray Bardani - Mixing
Jules Chaiken - Orchestra Contractor
Ivan Hampden - Programming
Ted Jensen - Mastering
Jeff Jones - Make-Up
Jeff Jones - Hair Stylist
Marcus Miller - Arranger
Marcus Miller - Programming
Marcus Miller - Producer
Leon Pendarvis - String Arrangements
Max Risenhoover - Digital Editing
Max Risenhoover - Design
Max Risenhoover - Sound Design
Fonzi Thornton - Vocal Contractor
Reed Vertelney - Arranger
Reed Vertelney - String Programming
David Ward II - Programming
David Ward II - Engineer
Al Schmidt - Engineer
Bibi Green - Production Coordination
Guzman/Rotterdam Conservatory Orquesta Tipica - Photography
Nat Adderley, Jr. - Arranger
Nat Adderley, Jr. - Producer
Nat Adderley, Jr. - Rhythm Arrangements
Mike Baumgartner - Assistant Engineer
Norman Jean Roy - Photography
Kyle Bess - Assistant Engineer
Pat Dorn - Project Coordinator
Paul J. Falcone - Assistant Engineer
Max Szadek - ?
Spinderella - Performer
Manzone - Design
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