The closest
Helen Reddy came to a concept album. After losing her mother, her father and a cherished aunt in quick succession, she assembled nine songs and wrote one herself, and dedicated each to a particular family member (the title track was a musical love letter to her husband and manager, Jeff Wald). While it would be churlish to sneer at such a commendable motive, it didn't make for a brilliant album or, surprisingly, even a tender one. "You and Me Against the World" was a Top Ten hit, and it's a pleasant enough piece of balladry, but not a patch on material
Reddy had tackled before. Elsewhere, there's a very weak
Carole Bayer Sager effort ("Ah, My Sister") and possibly the most treacly Mann/Weill song every committed to record. Only when
Reddy speeds the proceedings up a bit, as on "Keep on Singing" and "That Old American Dream," is there any relief from the tedium. ~ Charles Donovan