Dionne Warwick - My Friends and Me (2006)

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    Through a singing career that has spanned more than 40 years, Dionne Warwick has become a near seminal figure in the amalgamation of pop and soul music.  So it would be a shame if her recording career ends on a sour note such as My Friends and Me, the new duets album that has been released on Concord Records.

    Through a singing career that has spanned more than 40 years, Dionne Warwick has become a near seminal figure in the amalgamation of pop and soul music.  So it would be a shame if her recording career ends on a sour note such as My Friends and Me, the new duets album that has been released on Concord Records.  Like the popular but artistically void Frank Sinatra duets albums of more than a decade ago, My Friends and Me generally teams Warwick with a number of modern artists of younger generation, and neither party comes out a winner.  Warwick is not herself in best voice, and the exquisite Burt Bacharach/Hal David compositions that were the foundation for her airy, infectious hits of the 60s lose all magic in the hands of such ill-chosen partners as Kelis, Mya and Cyndi Lauper.  Only the ending combination of "The Windows of the World" (with Deborah Cox, Chante Moore and Angie Stone) and a latin take on "Do You Know the Way to San Jose" with Celia Cruz, are worthy of Warwick's legacy.  The remainder of My Friends and Me serves the sole purpose of reminding just how special the original versions of songs that filled Warwick's discography really were.

    By Chris Rizik