Helen Reddy - Music, Music (1976)

Music, Music was a long-needed shift in musical direction; hardly a seismic one to be sure, but a good move nonetheless. Reddy performed songs by talented female writers including Harriet Schock and Holly Near, whose classy, insightful pieces were perfect for her. Near's "Get off Me Baby" even afforded Reddy a rare opportunity to project a cooler, smarter image, far removed from the inert, cardboard persona she'd inhabited over the last few albums. A slick disco rendition of the Goffin-King composition "I Can't Hear You No More" was a minor hit, and the album might have done much better if more attention had been paid to its other tracks instead.~Charles Donovan