The last think you'd expect Dusty Springfield to get up to at her time of life is rap. Yet there she is on "Daydreaming", doing it like she invented girly rap way back in the beehive age. "Daydreaming" follows "In Private" (first solo Top 40 hit in 20 years!) on the Pet Shop Boys' side of Reputation, and if side two were the whole album, it'd be an artistic renaissance of towering proportions.

Neil Tennant, Chris Lowe and Julian Mendelson have written and produced five very knowing tracks for the perennial blonde - as in hip to her past with an eye on her future. "Occupy Your Mind", in particular, is a dream disco anthem that should have the rave kids levitating.

Side one, with three tracks produced by disco veteran Dan Hartman and one each by Andy Richards and Paul O'Duffy, isn't bad, just not so hip. Mainstream American soul cliches, like the corny backing vocals on "Reputation" and the whiny little horn signature on "Send It To Me", detract from vocal performances as good as anything Dusty has done.

Yes, that husky, soulful voice is it fine shape - Dusty can still turn up the pressure without having to holler like a house diva. Hartman and his cronies could have asked no more from any singer; the lapses are theirs alone. It's those lapses that leave Reputation half a great album and half a fairly good one.

Russell Brown
1990