Labelle - Back to Now

1. Candlelight
2. Roll Out
3. Superlover
4. System
5. The Truth Will Set You Free
6. Without You in My Life
7. Tears For The World
8. Dear Rosa
9. How Long
10. Miss Otis Regrets
Three decades have passed since Labelle last made an album, but it’s not like the singers have spent the time resting on their laurels from their “Lady Marmalade” dance-funk heyday in the mid-1970s. Between Sarah Dash’s stints with Keith Richards and the Rolling Stones, Nona Hendryx’s excursions into avant-garde and alternative rock, and Patti LaBelle’s music/fashion/food cottage-industry solo career, the group’s legacy has been a noticeably living one. Accordingly, Back to Now’s music is as appropriate as its title. The most old-school aspects are the work-ethic energy and the unflagging spirit that the trio pours into every track, and while some of the names lending a hand production-wise (Lenny Kravitz, Gamble & Huff) may imply retrofit, there’s little nostalgia evident. Even the disco-vibed “Roll Out,” co-written/produced by Wyclef Jean, pulsates with the ever-viable mix of grit and glamour that Labelle imprinted on contemporary R&B, something they rarely receive enough credit for. Just as viable is the force of nature that is Patti LaBelle. Hearing her gospel-grounded wails on “Candlelight,” “Tears for the World,” and Mother’s Finest’s “The Truth Will Set You Free,” it’s hard to believe that she and soul sisters Hendryx and Dash are in their 60s. I realize it’s impolite to talk about a woman’s age, but if the ladies of Labelle aren’t the epitome of a generation’s, er, new attitude about getting older, I don’t know who is. Download Labelle