Love Unlimited

by John Bush From a Girl's Point of View We Give You... is a cohesive album-length meditation on the highs and lows of love, delivered by a satiny girl group trio pillowed in one of the warmest production surroundings yet heard on a pop album -- courtesy of one Barry White . White and Love Unlimited had spent a year working up their material, and it shows: the nine songs hang together like few soul albums of the time. Opening with a subdued monologue by Glodean James , the album does take awhile to get to the best track and biggest hit; the last one here, "Walkin' in the Rain With the One I Love," became White 's first big hit, complete with ambient rain noise and a tender telephone call between White and James (who were later to marry). "I'll Be Yours Forever More" and "If This World Were Mine" (the latter a beautiful Marvin Gaye cover) are what the Supremes would've sounded like if they'd had the material, the producers, the freedom, and the ambition to record a concept album in the late '60s. Barry White 's arrangements are reminiscent of the mid-'60s Holland - Dozier - Holland sound, but with all the icy edges melted off and the driving drumwork coaxed into a mid-tempo crawl. The only flaw to From a Girl's Point of View We Give You.. . is that the other songs can't carry a candle to the three or four best selections -- though competently performed and seductively arranged, much of this concept record simply floats by.