Vanessa Williams | The Comfort Zone (1991)

[Zinc.]

[Deleted]

Her best album. Love all the singles. The album overall is too long though.. would have basically been flawless if it were pre-90's length (8-9 tracks).

[Ling-Ling]

I've been on such a Vanessa kick lately! Perfect timing for this thread.

It's a tad too long and it sags in the last half, but it's easily my favorite album by her. If she had trimmed this by four tracks and sequenced it differently, it would be perfection. I love what Karyn White did with Ritual Of Love that same year, stacked the A-side with the uptempos and gave you the ballad B-side, that would have worked so well for this.

Anyways, all of the singles killed. "Running Back To You" is my favorite uptempo by her, love the attitude, the bridge and that breakdown. The title track is S-E-X, I wish she had done more songs like that. "Work To Do" is better than the original IMO, love how tonal her vocal is on that one, she didn't use that texture of her voice often. "Just For Tonight" is such a grown ass classy ballad. The single version was better, but the album version isn't so far off that it bothers me. And "STBFL" is sap, but it's undeniable when I'm in the mood for it.

In terms of album tracks, "You Gotta Go" is great, smooth production. Also the first time I ever heard of Brian McKnight, she was keeping his ass paid in the early 90's. "Still In Love" is great too, love the chorus on that one. "What Will I Tell My Heart" is lush, should have been the album closer IMO. "Freedom Dance" is so cheesy with the chanting, but I'm such a sucker for early 90's dance music, I don't mind. "Strangers Eyes" is a tad middle of the road, but the sax sells me on it.

"2 Of A Kind," "Better Off Now," "One Reason" and "Goodbye" are the weak links, all perfectly listenable, but could have been left off. I actually really love the verses on "One Reason," but everything else is kind of wreck. It's like the chorus and production are fighting against each other, kinda ruins the song for me.

My version of the album.

1) The Comfort Zone
2) Running Back To You
3) Work To Do
4) Freedom Dance
5) You Gotta Go
6) Still In Love
7) Just For Tonight
8) Strangers Eyes
9) Save The Best For Last
10) What Will I Tell My Heart

[Deleted]

My ideal tracklist would basically be the same as above, but I can live without both "Freedom Dance" and "Strangers Eyes". I'd take "Love Like This" (the b-side to "Just For Tonight") over both of them.. Grover Washington Jr and Lalah Hathaway had a minor hit single with their version the same year.

[Ling-Ling]

YES. I ended up getting the "Just For Tonight" import single back in the day for the single remix of "JFT" and that song.

[Cautionme11/16]

One of the best Sophomore efforts ever! I remember listening to this album, repeatedly, and effortlessly.....

[The Brazilian Guy 🇧🇷]

It's a shame this era wasn't even bigger than it was. It's like everything aligned: Great talent, great music, great single choices, great videos, she looked absolutely stunning...

I've been listening to Vanessa a lot this past few weeks and this is definitely her peak music wise. She chose the singles so well for this project. I love all 5 of them. The album could do with a few songs cut, but I also love a bunch of the album tracks here: "Still in Love", "Goodbye", " You Gotta Go", but specially "What Will I Tell My Heart"... such a great recording! She really shines on this song and exudes so much class! I was surprised to only recently learn that there's a music video for this song. I wish I could find it with better quality