I previously posted a version of this album that dealt with the years 1986 to 2014. But in late 2021, the Aretha Franklin box set "Aretha" was released. I found a bunch of songs from the latter part of her career that I'd previously missed. So this album has narrowed in scope, and I made a new album that deals with the years 2002 to 2014.
In the 1990s, her good songs became rarer and rarer. She continued to chase musical trends like hip hop, New Jack, house, and so on. The results were not pretty. Plus, she just didn't put as much time and effort into her musical career as before (which naturally has been the pattern for most artists as they move into their senior years). For her entire career up until about 1982, she generally put out an album a year. But after that, it was usually three or more years between albums.
Funnily enough, the vast majority of the songs on this album have not been officially released. In fact, the only performance taken from one of her studio albums is "A Rose Is Still a Rose" from her 1998 album of the same title. Most of the rest are live performances. I'm generally not a fan of soul / R&B music from this time period (up to including today!), and a big reason for that is the production. For instance, the use of Autotune nearly always makes me cringe. Live versions often are better, because the practicalities of having a band play the songs can remove some of the production excesses.
A case in point in the song "A Deeper Love." I didn't like the song at all, even though it was a hit. It was Franklin's attempt at house music, and I really don't like house music. But I found a live version played on a TV show that sounds significantly different, and much better, in my opinion.
The only other officially released versions here are "Someday We'll All Be Free" from a movie soundtrack, and "Nessun Dorma" from the "Aretha" box set.
Sometimes when she played live or for TV shows during this time period, she avoided the bad production typical of the era. A case in point are the songs"Talk to Me" and "The Makings of You." She sang and played them solo on piano as part of a two-hour TV interview in 1994. In my opinion, it's very refreshing to hear her in this kind of stripped down format later in her career. She did "The Makings of You" with a full band for a 1994 Curtis Mayfield tribute album, also in 1994, but this version is much better, in my opinion.
This album is 50 minutes long.
01 Someday We'll All Be Free (Aretha Franklin)
02 Just to See Her (Aretha Franklin & Smokey Robinson)
03 Border Song [Holy Moses] (Elton John & Aretha Franklin)
04 Ol' Man River (Aretha Franklin)
05 S'Wonderful (Aretha Franklin)
06 A Deeper Love (Aretha Franklin)
07 Talk to Me (Aretha Franklin)
08 The Makings of You (Aretha Franklin)
09 How High the Moon (Aretha Franklin)
10 The Way We Were - The Best Is Yet to Come (Aretha Franklin)
11 Nessun Dorma (Aretha Franklin)
12 A Rose Is Still a Rose (Aretha Franklin with Lauryn Hill)
13 Lawdy Miss Clawdy - Dear Heart - Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte - Shotgun (Aretha Franklin with Erma Franklin)
https://www.upload.ee/files/15115151/ArethaF_1993-1999_ADeeprLove_atse.zip.html
The cover art is based on a photo from the latter part of her career, but I don't know the year.
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