Making A Good Thing Better review

Making A Good Thing Better
(EMI EMC 3192), 2 stars **

IT SEEMS to be expected that any review of Olivia Newton-John’s stuff in a ‘hip’ music paper should inevitably be a put-down job. Well, I’d love to be different just for the hell of it, but… WAIT! All is not lost!

This album is dreck, which is always a step in the right direction. I (unlike Jonathan Richman) like to see money on stage (or on vinyl). The problem is that producer John Farrar is singularly unadventurous, with only an occasional nod in the direction of interesting on territory/unexplored genres such as the slight hint of heavy metal MOR on the title track. You get some nice tinkling bells ‘Coolin’ Down’, but what a yawn when you turn the record over and find the same effect milked for all its worth on ‘Sad Songs’, track one, side two.

A host of predictable material (‘Don’t Cry For Me Argentina’, ‘Slow Dancing’) doesn’t help either. And it’s no good having bassist Lee Sklar (who seems to be on every L.A. album ever made) play on your record if he has nothing interesting to do. Money spent on expensive American studios is GREAT by me if it results in creative output, but you’ve also got to be adventurous; playing safe may sell records for the moment, but it doesn’t create real stars.

Olivia Newton-John doesn’t have a great voice, but more could be done with it than is in evidence here. Now I hate to be a NAME DROPPER, but there’s this guy in Hollywood who might be doing this girl’s next album.. let’s hear it for crossover product…

Sandy Robertson.