Aretha Franklin: So Damn Happy

By GRAHAM REID

(Herald rating: * *)

These days the great Aretha has a lot of competition, most of it from her own history. Her seminal soul of the 60s and early 70s will always be what she is always measured against, which might be unfair.

But here she exhibits only flashes of that brilliance and it mostly comes when sings economic lyrics written by herself (the title track, You Are My Joy).

When it takes four people to write a song, she duets (Mary J. Blige) or emotes by soaring to a screech at the top of her range (the over-wrought No Matter What), the overstatement kills this one faster than LA Reid's lavish production.

At times Aretha delivers like an Idols contender - all Whitney-like vocal gymnastics as a substitute for emotion - so this is distressingly uneven. But lots of people can now put "worked with Aretha" on their CV, and she gets to say "the album is the bomb". Not an opinion many will share.

Label: Arista