Barbra Streisand

OK, I admit to being a really big Barbra Streisand fan back in the 60s and 70s. I was bowled over by her talent. I'd never heard anyone sing with that sort of passion and take-no-prisoners attitude. At university, my friend Eleanor and I spent hours listening to the Broadway version of Funny Girl and those other early albums.

But as her career progressed, I found myself less and less taken with what she was doing in movies and in her music making. Her singing seemed to calculated and self-conscious. At least to me.

A few weeks ago I was in a record store (one of the few that still exists, I guess) and came across her latest disc. It's a whole disc of songs with lyrics by her old pals Alan and Marilyn Bergmann. And I find myself liking it. First of all, it's got gorgeous, sumptuous arrangements of some pretty fine tunes. (Who can afford to pay all those violinists anymore?) And Streisand's singing seems to have lost that affectation and self-consciousness that has bothered me sometimes over the years. There's a wonderful version of "So Many Stars" a bossa nova tune by Jobim that's just lovely and I really liked "Nice n Easy". Who can resist that lush string orchestra? There's even a harp.