In the twenty plus years that Annie Lennox has been singing, half with Eurithmics, half as an accomplished solo artist-- her vocal ability has never slipped a notch. Thankfully that doesn't change on this new collection of works. Bare is a very revealing and personal album that shows a soft underbelly to the hard nosed diva. Songs such as "Loneliness" and "The Saddest Song I've Got" are dead on superb, while the best song by far, "Pavment Cracks," will surely garner her attention when the best song of the year category comes up at Grammy time. Unfortunately, what this album suffers from is poor production.

Almost three fourths of this album sounds like it was recorded on 1980's Casio keyboards. Songs such as "Hurting Time" offer up one of those cheesy keyboard harmonica solo sounds, and it makes you wonder, if they wanted harmonica sounds, why didn't they just hire a harmonica player? Though the record is dotted with production blunders, at least the songs are there, and that definitely has to count for something.