Visions

A lesser-known GK&TPs album that is well worth a revisit, Visions features Motown’s finest female vocalist in reliably good form, that rich, warm, sweet-like-honey/gritty voice instantly recognisable on a succession of supa-tight post-disco soul jams and big-time quiet storm epics. If anyone can do justice to an orchestrated soul slow jam it’s Gladys Knight and she does it beautifully on the gorgeous ballads Just Be My Lover and Heaven Sent. Visions also delivers a succession of superb uptown boogie and synth-soul which Knight, frankly, absolutely owns. With its subtle orchestration and René Magritte cover, the whole project oozes class and sophistication. Visions is like the best of Motown and Philly repackaged in shiny new digital clothes for the 80s and is easily one of The Pips’ best album efforts.