Part Time Love

Album review

For reasons seemingly lost to history, Ann Peebles' second album, Part Time Love, featured four songs that were lifted from her debut LP, This Is Ann Peebles, which came and went with little notice less than a year earlier. Despite the recycling of "It's Your Thing," "Crazy About You Baby," "Give Me Some Credit," and "Solid Foundation," Part Time Love does have a different overall feel that sets it apart from Peebles' first set. Peebles hardly seemed like a beginner on This Is Ann Peebles, but she's even more confident on Part Time Love's new material, with a tougher and more soulful edge announcing itself on "I'll Get Along" and the title cut, and while the Hi Records house band are as tight as ever here, the newer songs have a funkier energy that suggests how much was changing in R&B as the 1960s gave way to the '70s. Part Time Love also isn't filled with a number of instantly recognizable covers like the debut, forcing fans to make a mental comparison between Peebles and the likes of Aretha Franklin (though this does carry over This Is Ann Peebles' take on the Isley Brothers' "It's Your Thing"), and Peebles puts her brand on several new tunes on this album, giving them a fresh and vibrant reading that's passionate and effective. If Part Time Love is flawed, it's because this really seems more like half an album -- running a mere 27 minutes and featuring four songs from Peebles' barely cold debut album, this is a curiously skimpy effort from a singer as accomplished as this, though that's not the sort of complaint that's likely to register when you're listing to music as beautifully crafted as this.

© Mark Deming /TiVo