Album Review: Thank You - Diana Ross

With UK tour dates scheduled for 2022, Diana Ross closes out 2021 with the delivery of her first studio album in 15 years (and her first original material since 1999's Every Day Is A New Day).

Written and recorded during the lockdowns last year, Thank You sees Ross team up with producer du jour Jack Antonoff alongside acclaimed songwriters Jimmy Napes, Amy Wadge, Tayla Parx and Spike Sten. While Ross has nothing to prove on her 25th studio album, with the bar set so high by her overflowing back catalogue, is Thank You a worthy addition?

Now there is no denying the beauty in Ross' vocal. She boasts a timelessly distinctive voice that would melt even the hardest of hearts. But sonically, Thank You's lead single, had potentially promised a new era in Ross' soundscape. The truth of the matter is that Thank You plays it close to the sound that Ross is already known and loved for.

While there may not be the Motown vibes of her earliest work, Thank You centres on the pop balladry that has dominated a lot of her latter career. Although there may be a few who feel short-changed by the lack of new sound, there is no denying Thank You will please the majority of her fanbase. That being said, with stompers like Let's Do It on the record, Ross shows she's not forgotten how to party.

Thank You is an album fuelled by hope and thanks, which in a post-Covid world, we all need to hear.