Everyone knows Anita's hits from her breakthrough release, "Rapture" and its successor, "Giving You the Best That I Got"...you had to be under a rock in the mid-to-late 80's to not hear "Sweet Love," "Same Ole Love (365 Days a Year)" and "Giving You the Best That I Got" played on the radio in regular rotation (those were the days when adult artists still got airplay and cracked the Top 40...and in Baker's case, the Top Ten). But "Compositions," Anita's fourth album, is her true work of art.

As the title suggests, Anita contributed to the writing of most of the album, even penning one tune solo. The result is some of the most well-measured material in her career. You'd be hard-pressed to find a song better suited to Baker's voice than "Talk to Me," a warm ballad that could either be from friend to friend or lover to lover. The same can be said for "Perfect Love Affair" and "No One to Blame," songs that, instead of sounding like leftovers from "Rapture," manage to further mine Anita's definitive style, coming off as instant classics.

Baker's forays into jazz were always frequent ("Rapture"'s "Been So Long" and "Giving You the Best"'s "Good Enough" have always been considered among her best) but "Love You to the Letter" and "Lonely" (the latter of which is Anita's solo composition) take her over the edge into full Swing Diva mode. Somewhere between Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald, Anita finds her own jazz voice and makes you wonder what sort of magic she'd conjure up on an album of standards. "Fairy Tales" even offers a taste of modern jazz, offering an extremely generous piano solo and feeling like an old-fashioned jam session as it clocks in over eight minutes.

Throw in the lush pop of "Soul Inspiration" (rightly a successful pop single at the time of this album's release) and you have the portrait of an artist in top form. Her voice has never sounded better and her material has never been better suited to her talents. "Rapture" will always be a classic and it is definitely the album that brought Anita to the world's attention, but "Compositions" shows the heights to which a gifted artist can truly soar.

If Anita Baker ever looked at the customer reviews of her work in Amazon.com, I'm sure she would find it a heartening experience. Her fourth album COMPOSITIONS was not generally well received by critics in its day. It lacked an obvious hit single like "Sweet Love" or "Giving You the Best that I've Got." In fact, these songs, most of which were co-written by Anita herself, were cooler and jazzier than her 80s efforts (I know that may scarcely seem possible, but, as she proves here, it is). There is a kind of languor about this material that some, on first hearing, took for torpor. It requires a few re-hearings to hear what Anita and band were really up to--and there is good stuff here, to be sure.

Typical of the critical reaction is J.D. Considine's dismissive remarks in THE ROLLING STONE ALBUM GUIDE ("...an album so devoid of cogent songwriting that one wonders if the title wasn't meant ironically"). I think Considine was being way too glib--aside from being plain old unfair--but I can see how one can have some initial doubts about this album. Upon first hearing it, I found the "compositions" a little amorphous too, but there was something about that forced me to give it repeated listenings and I found my opinion considerably altered by the third or fourth time. Anita's quiet storm gradually gained strength, and now I consider this album among her best.

Anita Baker is a singer who has carved out her turf. You could say that she has her limitations (what singer doesn't?). "Lonely," which she penned herself, is about as uptempo as she gets. You're not going to find funk here. Everything else is mid-tempo jazz-inflected soul. Arrangements are expansive and leisurely (no track clocks in at less than four and half minutes). Baker does not do everything, but what she does do, she does very well.

Baker's (self-imposed?) exile stretching from the mid-90s on has been a source of frustration to her hard-core fans (see some of the comments below). For many others, she has become another "whatever-happened-to" artist, remembered somewhat fondly when she is, in fact, remembered. It wouldn't take much, however, to reinvigorate her career. Somebody should scour the vaults for another "Sweet Love" (for the masses), and Anita and crew should get work on producing more compositions on the order of these tracks (for the rest of us).

This album had much stronger jazz influences than Baker's three previous albums. At a time when most female R&B singers were turning to heavily-synthesized and terribly over-produced club/ dance music, Baker refused to compromise her artistry -- in the end, she came up with a real winner. "Talk To Me", "Whatever It Takes", "More Than You Know", "Perfect Love Affair" and "Soul Inspiration" are all excellent examples of smooth and classy Adult Contemporary-R&B at its best. No serious fan of adult-oriented R&B or jazz vocals should be without this album.

ANITA BAKER HAS BEEN ONE OF MUSIC'S MOST SOULFUL VOICE OF OUR TIME.I HAVE EVERY CD THAT SHE RECORDED.FOR THOSE WHO DON'T KNOW,ANITA USED TO SING IN A BAND YEARS AGO CALLED "CHAPTER 8". THE SONGTRESS WAS HER FIRST SOLO ALBUM AFTER SHE SUNG WITH THE BAND.RAPTURE WAS THE SECOND ALBUM.I HAVE BEEN TO HER CONCERT AND SHE SOUNDS JUST AS BEAUTIFUL AS SHE DOES ON CD.SHE SINGS ABOUT THE REALNESS OF LOVE AND BEING IN LOVE AND NOT THE ARTIFICIAL LYRICS THAT GROUPS PUT OUT HERE TODAY!!!!I'M JUST WAITING TO BUY HER NEXT CD TO ADD TO MY COLLECTION.ANITA,I LOVE YA AND IN THE MEANTIME I'LL LISTEN TO YOUR PAST CD'S UNTIL THE NEW ONE HITS THE STORES.

I've always fallen in love with Anita Baker ever since the first time I heard her sing "Sweet Love." This is just another great album that never ceases to amaze me! I play this album frequently, and still I can't get enough of it! My favorite songs are "Soul Inspiration," "Fairy Tales," "Perfect Love Affair," and "Lonely." I often cruise the streets of Baltimore with this album playing on my stereo. At home, at work, riding on the Jones Falls Expressway-- every time this album ends, it leaves me yearning for more! I hope Anita Baker comes back to make albums as good as this! And Patti LaBelle, if you're listening, thank her for letting you be her soul's inspiration!