Diva

Having nearly upstaged Obama at his own inauguration not so much with her performance, but with her rather spectacular church lady crown, I was suddenly inspired to take a listen to Her Soulful Highness's much maligned 1979 'disco' album, "La Diva." After signing with Atlantic and subsequently going from strength to strength in the late 60's and early 70's; not unlike some of her contemporaries, the mid/late 70's and the onslaught of disco found Aretha in a commercial slump of sorts (the Sparkle soundtrack with Curtis Mayfield being a notable exception). Having the dubious distinction of being one of her most, if not the most ill-received album she's ever released, "La Diva" was the first of her Atlantic studio albums to miss the Billboard top 100 altogether, and to this day, with barely any critics out there having anything good to say about it, it has ultimately gone down as one of the undisputed low-points in her career.