Miki Howard has always shown a penchant for classic material (remember her tribute album to Billie Holiday?), so she would seem a natural to jump into the current trend of "covers" albums of classic pop and soul material. Unfortunately, Pillow Talk does neither the genre nor Howard's sterling reputation much good. The disc has very nice bookends consisting of a solid version of the oft-recorded "I Can't Stand the Rain" and a hot remake of Stargard's "Which Way Is Up," but just about everything in between is either ill-chosen ("Go Away Little Boy") or simply poorly performed ("Do That To Me One More Time"). Miki Howard has been the source of too much great music to judge her too harshly on one album, and one has to hope that she will continue to record albums in the future that are at the level of her earlier work and not at the diminished level of Pillow Talk.
CR
