Before she got physical, Olivia was mellow, and that's where she has
returned - to the days when she sang soft, sweet ballads. Twenty five years ago she was my dream girl, the one with the golden locks, golden voice and golden records.  Since then I've grown up and so has Olivia. The question is can she go back and recapture that dream. "Grease" is in re-release so she is, in effect, competing with a younger version of herself.

I took out her old albums and replayed them after listening to her
current album. The voice is a little rougher, a little fuller but is still
filled with the sweetness and, even after all these years, the wonder that
made her voice a pop standard for a generation.

"Precious Love" is one of seven songs on the album written or co-written
by Olivia. It is like a love letter to all her fans, expressing her feelings
about them and her music, while on the surface being a love ballad in the style that gave us "I Honestly Love You," which she reprises as the album's final track. "If you wanna go back to where we used to be/ You gotta get 'Closer To Me',"  makes you want to hug the cd player. Written by John Farrar, her longtime friend and collaborator, it has the kind of pop hook of "Hopelessly Devoted To You" for which she is famed.

There is a definite country feel to the bluesy "Fight For Our Love," as
she draws out each word, echoing the slow but emphatic beat. She can still stop you in your tracks with her abrupt change of pace. The husband who spends all his time trying to be a big wheel while "Spinning His Wheels" at love is a cry from all the corporate wives left looking for love, ignored  by their workaholic spouses.

The next song is an expression of how a woman can know he's the wrong
man, and yet just can't resist. Olivia's voice gets a little reedy as she
reaches but it may be the subject matter that got "Under My Skin." One of the sweetest ballads, very reminiscent of her past successes, "Love Is A Gift," can make you forget the song that preceeded it.

A monotonous beat and a flat delivery makes "Don't Wanna Say Goodnight" my least favorite song on the album. An overdone twang in her voice doesn't help either. "Don't Say That" might have been better titled "don't sing that," as the delivery is once again stilted and uneven.

Just when I get tempted to turn off the cd player Olivia gets my "Attention" with another sweet ballad that caresses my heart, remembering understatement is often the best way to turn one's ear. The title track, "Back With A Heart," is a country song delivered without the twang, and therefore highly listenable. A catchy beat and snappy delivery makes this single material.

The final track is the remake of her hit "I Honestly Love You," and it's one of the reasons I still honestly love Olivia. This version has a bit more depth and pain  underlying it than the original, and I'm not sure which I like better, but as it is being released as a single you will get a chance to pull out your copy of "If You Love Me" and listen to her chart topping version and compare for yourself. Better yet buy the album and do it at your leisure.