The one hundred sixth album: #106 Aretha Franklin - I Never Loved A Man The Way I Loved You
We've reached the first album of the Queen of Soul, even if this was Aretha Franklin's eleventh album. It starts off with the still sensational Respect, setting a tone for the album that feels like it pushes existing songs to a more R&B sound, a loud soul that moves away from the blues origins into something more lively.
The energy shifts through the album, but it mostly stays on the up, and the slower soul songs still sound good and move along nicely still. It's well produced, but not over produced, and Aretha's voice dominates it all. She sounds perfect, with great emotion in there but always in control of the songs.