It has been several years since Sheena Easton has had a major release outside of Japan and it's great to have her back! Her latest is a wonderful feel-good album drawing mostly on remakes of familiar dance and R&B classics of the 1970s and 80s.

It's hard to imagine anyone bringing anything new to such classics like Gloria Gaynor's "Never Can Say Goodbye", Donna Summer's "Love is in Control" or Thelma Houston's "Don't Leave Me This Way", but she does come off as if she is having one heck of a great time!! She also manages to maintain high energy on "Giving up Giving In" (The Three Degrees) and does a quite creditable job on "Best of my Love" ("The Emotions"). There is one duet - "On My Own" (Patti Labelle/Michael McDonald) where she is joined by a quite youthful sounding Terry Donald - coproducer on the album. At first, I thought it sounded like Sheena was duetting with herself!

Interestingly, the two mellow cuts here may actually attract as much attention as the uptempo ones. She obviously has good taste in choosing Deniece Williams' "That's What Friends Are For" (from "This is Niecy") and giving it a smooth, sensual groove. "You Never Gave Me a Chance" (to my knowledge, not a remake) is vintage Sheena. However, the crowning jewel of this collection is the last track "Get Here to Me." This is a wonderful, star-out-slow turning into a high-steppin' disco anthem in the "Last Dance" tradition.

Sheena, the production and arrangements (not to mention the material) are terrific. For Sheena fans, it's quite worth the import price. The only real disappointment is that it all seems to end quite a bit too soon, but then you can just skip back to track 1 and start it all over again. Don't be surprised if you find yourself doing just that!

Yes, four stars may seem a bit extravagant. But this album is simply too appealing to deserve anything less. Truly. When was the last time you spent money on a CD that gave your index finger on the FF/REW more of a work out than it did your ears, especially if you're into club music? Probably not too long ago. Granted, this is an album of mostly disco and funk covers, but one thing I've realized in this genre is that fewer musicians have been able to make a meal out of club music technology than have been able to barely use it as a spice. Dance music is still largely the domain of its producers rather than its half-baked songwriters and nameless belters. Here Terry Roland & Ian Masterson prove their prowess in the field as aptly as Metro has with so many other worthy artists. Instead of a perfunctory wash of machines and crystaline techno they've produced a highly stylish and deep sound complete with lush background vocals, swirling orchestra, and a beat that energizes instead of tires. They've easily made standard material sound interestingly fresh. A cover like "Never Can Say Goodbye" sounds as joyful as the first time you heard Gloria Gaynor's chestnut. Although, "Best Of My Love" falls just short of this. Easton proves herself worthy of such glorious surroundings, never sounding overwrought, underwhelmed, nor unenthused. Every reading she gives is personal Sheena, never posed. Given the setting of such diva-tried territory, rarely does she scale a height she's incapable of hitting. Particular high points on 'Fabulous', where producers and artist are hand-in-glove: the frenetic "Giving Up, Giving In", the enormous arena-like sound of "Love Is In Control", the sincere intimacy of "That's What Friends Are For" (Deniece Williams & Johnny Mathis, not Dionne Warwick & Friends) and the funky Tom Tom Club beatbox of "I Need Your Lovin'", the Teena Marie gem. Overall, beginning to end this is an invigorating listen. The two extra tracks on this Japanese issue are the mentioned "I Need Your Lovin'" and the DJ Soma Grow Sound Mix of "Can't Take My Eyes Off You", all 8+ minutes of it. Hopefully this will get a domestic release with a worthy promo campaign behind it, and hopefully with a few more tracks that might be waiting in the wings. But when and if...this price tag is worth it.

Hi everybody! I heard so many good things about this album...many of them right here on good ole' Amazon.com!!! I could hardly contain my excitement when I heard it for myself...it's all really quite true...it's THAT GOOD! I love the track "Never Can Say Goodbye" and Sheena Easton has taken a gorgeous song "That's What Friends Are For" (originally from Deniece Williams) and made it even more beautiful!!! The production on this album is right on track. Subtle where need be, galloping along where it should AND THE VOCALS ARE FABULOUS.

This album deserves to be released in the US. It could give Sheena Easton the same bounce/bump UP in her career that "The Lover In Me" project did. Almost all the tracks are single-worthy, perfect and delicious. Almost 45 minutes of pure astonishing FUN. Don't wait...get a copy for yourself now :-)

Sheena Easton gallops back into the mainstream with this big, brassy, florid, string-and-synth drenched disco record, which could be subtitled "...-Ghetto-Fabulous." Unlike a similar effort by Gloria Estefan a few years back, this dance-oriented recording works not only as a valentine to Easton's loyal ... and club following but as a straight ahead footstomping party disc. The mirror ball on the back cover reflects the shimmering, over the top arrangements that surround Sheena's athletic gold lame interpretations of discotheque chestnuts and mainstays, smartly selected and crafted by producers Terry Ronald and Ian Masterson. The team contributes two originals, the uptempo "Get Here to Me" and classic Sheena lament, "You Never Gave Me the Chance," alongside sterling renditions of Thelma Houston's "Don't Leave Me This Way," "Never Can Say Goodbye," "Best of My Love," and, especially, The Three Degrees' "Giving Up, Giving In" and a version of Patti LaBelle's "On My Own" that brings the sadness and bravery of the lyric to the forefront, a Sheena Easton specialty. Whoever decided to let the girl dance was truly inspired.

I love Sheena Easton's entire '80s catalog which chronicles her metamorphasis from the innocent squeaky-clean Scottish lass singing the poppy "Morning Train" to the red-hot slinky R&B siren wailing about "The Lover In Me", but this package is a big misstep for her and a big let-down for fans.

The biggest problem with Sheena's 16th album, originally released in 2000/2001 (seemingly everywhere but North America), is that the production is so uninspired and generic and seems marketed at the lowest common denominator. It doesn't help that the production overshadows her vocals either but at least she's really singing and they didn't vocode her vocals to death a la Cher on "Believe".

She tackles such disco classics as "Don't Leave Me This Way", "Never Can Say Goodbye" and "Best of My Love", but brings nothing new to them. Actually these remakes only remind the listener of how lush and soulful Thelma Houston, Gloria Gaynor and The Emotions all sounded back in the '70s.

On Donna Summer's "Love Is In Control (Finger on the Trigger)" and Patti Labelle/Michael McDonald's duet "On My Own" (inexplicably given the disco treatment), Sheena sounds bored and tired. The passion and spunk she displayed on simmering tracks like "101", "The Lover In Me" and "Strut" has all but vanished. We only see a spark of it on the album's best cut, a remake of The Three Degrees' "Giving Up, Giving In", which is only a tad more interesting than the other covers because here Sheena sounds raspy at times and not at all like herself and it has funky '70s-sounding guitar (think "Theme from "Shaft").

Frankie Valli's "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" almost falls into the "so-bad-it's-good" category thanks to some campy background vocals.

This album suffers from too many generic electronic beats and even the slower, romantic songs like "That's What Friends Are For" (an old Deniece Williams song, NOT the Dionne & Friends hit from 1986) suffer from this, and Sheena just comes across as trying to be a Celine Dion clone.

If you love fast-pumping, computerized dance music like "If You Could Read My Mind" by Stars on 54, Janet Jackson's "Together Again" or "Believe" by Cher you will probably love this, but true Sheena fans should revisit anything from her '80s catalog instead of buying this, unless they want it for a workout album.