Cool, slick R&B record

Having released 9 albums on Polydor of varying quality, Gloria Gaynor signed with Atlantic in 1982 and released this surprisingly enjoyable album that was all but ignored at the time, despite being one of the lady's most complete albums to date. Kool & The Gang re-worked the Supremes classic "Stop In The Name Of Love" for Gloria, this was the first single, and the result is terrifically funky, as are songs as "Runaway Love", "Tease Me" and "Love Me Real", classy R&B! Also the ballad cuts are worth listening to, the thoughtful "Mack-Side", "For You, My Love" (both co-penned by Gloria's husband) and Tom Snow-penned "Even A Fool Would Let Go". The second single, "America" isn't that bad either, that said if you can only ignore the sickly lyrics that make you wanna puke, it bears several similarities to Donna Summer's equally awful "Living In America" from her 1982 album, in that it also features a children's choir praising God's own country ... yuck! "I Will Survive" is included in both a short & long version on the CD as a bonus track, although it's kept as close as possible to the original 1978 recording, this is a re-recording (the first of many ...), produced by Yves Dessca, for what purpose is not known ... I think 4 stars are too much as the LP lacks a good hit single so it ends up a 3 stars release, it should have been 3½ stars as this is really Gloria Gaynor's best album.