Spirit in the Dark
| Aretha FranklinSpirit in the Dark
Spirit in the Dark is the seventeenth studio album by American singer Aretha Franklin, released on August 24, 1970 by Atlantic Records. It received critical acclaim, but was met with middling sales, despite having two hit singles, "Don't Play That Song (You Lied)", which peaked at #1 R&B, #11 on the Hot 100, and "Spirit in the Dark", peaking at #3 R&B and #23 Hot 100, in Billboard magazine. It was Aretha's first Atlantic album to fall short of Billboard's Top 20, but it is now considered to be one of Aretha's classic Atlantic LPs. In 1994, Rhino Records re-issued this recording on compact disc. Kanye West has sampled the album title song in his "School Spirit", found on the album The College Dropout. Despite not released as a single, her song "Try Matty's" is best known as the jingle for radio host Matt Siegel to Boston's Kiss 108.
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Critic Reviews
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Pitch Fork
A hi-hat shimmers, a kick-drum thuds, and then in one of the great mic drops of all time, the diva Aretha Franklin, returned to earth now in a state of grace
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Rolling Stone
Review Year: 1970 If you’re into Aretha’s singing you already know the majesty and supreme power she’s capable of. Its all here: sweet soul music done as only Aretha Franklin can do it.
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Back Seat Mafia
Review Year: 2015 Dark did not achieve enormous commercial success, instead taking a more scenic route towards being regarded as one of her finest work.
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Contact Music
It's difficult to think that we'll never hear Aretha Franklin belt out some of these fine tunes live again, but her voice is recorded for eternity.
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Warr
A solid, blues-based return to form.
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Rock Salted
Review Year: 2017 Fans of her late-1960s records sometimes see this as falling off in quality, if still a very good record.
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