TEAM RNS PRESENTS

ARTIST: Anita Baker

TITLE: Night of Rapture (Live)

LABEL: Atlantic / Rhino

RIPPER: Team RNS

209kbps avg - R&B
0hr 44min total- 70.2mb

RELEASE DATE: 2004-06-08
RIP DATE: 2004-06-10

01 Caught Up in the Rapture       5:29

03 Been So Long                   5:52
04 No One in the World            4:11
05 Same Ole Love (365 Days a Year)3:59
06 Watch Your Step                6:20

08 You Bring Me Joy               4:32

It's been years since Anita Baker fans
got any new material from their diva,
but it's coming. 2004 found Baker signing
a contract with Blue Note and recording
a new album. So if Baker-mania is going
to break out amongst the cosmopolitan
again, her old home Warner Brothers
must feel they've just got to have new
Baker product on the shelves. Here Warner
Brothers hands the singer over to their
reissue imprint, Rhino. The label could
have done her fans a big favor if they
reissued her 1987 VHS One Night of Rapture
on DVD, but instead they lifted the
soundtrack and put it on this release.
Now Baker had only been in the
public's eye for a couple months when
this was recorded, and she didn't have
that much experience in front of an
audience. She's a bit sloppier live and
Rapture's big sound has been replaced
with an indistinctive band led by Bobby
Lyle. The thing that made the video so
good is that Baker's warm personality
carried the show when the music didn't.
Here, you get a taste with three
videos on the multimedia portion of the
disc. It's a tease, and provides even
more evidence that the video should be
reissued. The biggest disappointment is
one of the few tracks not from the VHS:
the lackluster version of "Caught Up in
the Rapture," pulled from a Japanese-only
EP. This would be a fair collection for
most other artists, but considering
Baker's usual high standards, it's her
least necessary release. Pass unless
you have every other bit of Baker
product and just can't wait for her Blue

--  David Jeffries, AMG