Dorinda Clark-Cole - Yesterday (CD)

All Music Guide

The timing of Take It Back, the third release from Dorinda ClarkCole, seemed too good to be true. Released in the wake of the Clark Sisters garnering three longoverdue Grammys for their comeback smash Live One Last Time, the disc was unleashed at the cusp of Clarkmania, but the promotional push doesn't belie the disc's own strengths. Take It Back happens to be ClarkCole's strongest effort thus far, perhaps because it was recorded entirely in the studio: the Clarks have a thing for cutting albums live, but their charismatic background sometimes gets the best of them, resulting in naturally overthetop vocalizations. Not so with Take It Back: while some songs do have an unmistakable COGIC stamp ("Take It Back," "Got to Hold On"), the controlled environment of the studio keeps ClarkCole contained, resulting in some pretty terrific church. While ClarkCole really kills this COGICstyled material, she proves a stylish songstress in the more urbanized selections, like the breathtaking "Yesterday," an encouraging ballad that sounds like a longlost bside from 2nd Chance, the Elektra debut from sister Karen ClarkSheard. ClarkCole sounds hippest in songs like "Return" (featuring cousin J Moss) and "It's Okay" (a duet with niece Kierra "KiKi" Sheard), but the more modern context is never out of place, mainly because ClarkCole knows how to seesaw between sacred and secular sensibilities that's was one of the trademarks of the Clark Sisters. That's the reason Take It Back is ClarkCole's best album yet: more so than any other outing from a solo Clark, it succeeds at knitting together all the eras of the renowned gospel family past, present, and future all on one disc.

- Andree Farias, All Music Guide