Quite where Melody FM and purveyors of elevator music would be without the "talent" of Natalie Cole to draw on is one of those great imponderables in life.
For ease of reference they are now able to bring together the greatest hits of Cole Junior on one 19 track album. Twenty-six years after scooping the first of twelve Grammies, Natalie is still going strong with the surprisingly dancey 'Livin' for Love', but you get the sense that whatever spark ever existed within her music has long since faded.
Nevertheless all the tracks that you'd recognise her for are here. The two duets with her late, great father, which accounted for seven of those Grammies, 'Unforgettable' and 'When I Fall in Love' stand out along with the classic smoochy ballad 'Miss You Like Crazy'.
It is quite possible to nod off during the rest of this unforgivable compilation, however given the monotony of ballad after ballad and Natalie's bluesy, but ultimately unexeptional voice.The same material, handled by Aretha or Diana Ross might sparkle with occasional glimpses of attitude or passion, but Natalie's voice isn't the full on soul sensation the hype would have you believe.
The arrangements are uninventive, pale imitations of the Motown greats they ape. Even the saxophone solos seem to be played by Kenny G rather than Bleeding Gums Murphy and the whole album just comes across as tepid easy listening.
Natalie though, to her credit, is one famous off-spring who has been able to develop a career and reputation separate to that of her old man, even if her greatest successes forced him to make a supernatural comeback.
She sings bluesy ballads and slow love songs in the jazzy style of a piano bar doll and if you're in the mood for lurve of have a particularly cheesy taste in soul this may be for you. Just don't try operating machinery at the same time, this might make you feel drowsy.
