If You Love Me album review
“If You Love Me, Let Me Know”: Olivia Newton-John (MCA)
Performance: Very good.
Recording quality: Very good
Olivia Newton-John is England’s contribution to the quest for an heir to the throne of Carole King.
Newton-John, just as Carly Simon, is more a singer then a writer, and her voice is as pleasant to listen to. if not more so. as Simon’s and King’s.
The arrangements on “If You Love Me” are generally a hybrid rock-country blend. that come off well. Newton-John’s version of Barbara Keith’s “Free the People” is exceptional, sounding a little like Barbra Streisand’s ver-sion, but better. “Mary Skiffington is a throwback to earlier female-British songs a la Marianne Faithful, but that’s not meant to take anything away from the song. It’s good. While it may sound like there’s nothing bad about this album, that’s almost true - but not quite.
Side Two’s offerings are not as good as the first side’s. The problem is more the material than the artist. She only really falls down when she sings. Brian Wilson’s “God Only Knows” in which the, I guess you’d call it - seductiveness doesn’t quite make it.
“Changes” - the only song on the album that Olivia Newton-John wrote is not bad.
The studio musicians backing her up on the album are excellent, but as is too often the case, they remain anonymous since MCA failed to identify them.
By Lou Ganim