Patti Austin's third Qwest album was a reasonable success, making the Top 50 on the R&B chart and throwing off three R&B chart singles, "Honey for the Bees," "The Heat of Heat," and the title track. But you could tell it was supposed to do a lot better on the pop chart: five heavyweight producers (
Russ Titelman,
Tommy LiPuma,
Monte Moir, and
Jimmy Jam and
Terry Lewis), plus 14 songwriters, contributed to what was doubtless a big-budget production, and that means label head
Quincy Jones was looking for a lot more in the way of crossover than a low chart ranking for "The Heat Of Heat." In retrospect, the fault lies with all that high-priced help, while
Austin gives her all in any guise they devise for her -- sultry balladeer, disco diva, pop princess. ~ William Ruhlmann