The Queen is Back ! Four decades of music!
What a bliss! The QUEEN (or should it be Empress by now?) is back! Four decades of music and songs she provided us. Mostly co-written or written by Miss Summer herself. This album stands out as a wonderful up-to-date piece of work. Again Donna Summer have proved herself as one of the most important vocalists! This album shows again that Donna can do anything she musically wants. It's incredible to see that she's still in control! What an artist, what a voice! Well....... what to add more...

Of course I'm a fan since Donna's disco days, but I always admired her for using different 'colors' and musical directions to keep us surprised. We remember the albums THE WANDERER, I'M A RAINBOW, MISTAKEN IDENTITY, CHRISTMAS SPIRIT etc. So this new album adds to the flavour.

To electronic? Well... ever heard I FEEL LOVE, OUR LOVE, NOW I NEED YOU? If any artist liked to experiment... Donna was! Always ahead of everybody else. Remember the reactions Brian Eno and David Bowie made on I FEEL LOVE... it was 1976!

Not Donna's Disco? Is an artist a good one if she/he sticks to a few masterpieces or genres only? Or is real artist one who paved the way to new areas, new grounds, new experiences? The masterpieces of Donna's disco days are musical milestones now. But to re-copy them? Let other singers do that stuff. Donna Summer have already proved herself during the disco days and there is too much quality stuff out of that period that it would be dull to make more! Let Donna go on!

But ok.... it's FOUR decades now, and Donna refuses to stop and limit herself to disco alone. This album shows her kaleidoscopic skills. Wonderful. A good addition and developement to her earlier work. Sad that it took so long (17 years) to complete it, but it was worth the wait. And Donna deserves to be waiting for. What a class and uncomparable! Stylisch and with a good spirit. That's the Donna we learned to know during the last 40 years. Let's hope she keep us wondering and suprised. She cannot be missed in the global musical minds of music lovers.

P.S. the pictures on this album are wonderful. Photoshopped? Well, what's NOT photoshopped or corrected these days.... would you look so good after a photoshop session?? (joking).

The Queen is BACK! --- but is it a COMEBACK?
Donna Summer has always apparently felt conflicted about her being typecast as a mere "dance music" singer, her fame, and some of her fans. After a seventeen year hiatus, Donna proclaims she is back! In a noble effort to recapture some of her past glory, Dance-Floor Donna sings (with obvious references to her earlier Disco Diva days): "So many years ago on the radio, she crept into ya soul and loved to love ya all...The Queen is Back!" Well, partly.

One gets the strong impression that DS has resented being pigeonholed by fans and the music industry with the moniker "the Queen of Disco," and has persistently tried to break out of this "disco/dance" cage with forays into other, more "respectable" musical categories. Yet, despite her persistence, she has never really attained the popular and financial heights she once knew whenever straying. (Donnapologists may disagree.) She sings, "Let me introduce myself. I'm a woman that you've never seen. You might know me from somewhere else as someone that I've never been," and "Fame made a fool out of everyone...It's all about who they think you are."

A Queen, but a reluctant, conflicted Queen.

Despite numerous efforts to expand her musical repertoire in the past, these have mostly been fair to failing. While promising "the Queen is Back!" on *Crayons*, she tries the everything-but-the-kitchen-sink approach again here, with mixed results. The album starts off with great promise, full of the energy and passion we have missed as she tries on varied contemporary dance styles. However, more than halfway into the album, the excitement peters out, plummeting into generic, mediocre, indistinguishable pop tunes and a ballad unworthy of our Queen. While listening to her convincing impersonation of Tina Turner on Track 9 may be a hoot, her "stretch marks" throughout the CD are most embarrassingly revealed here.

Rumors persist about her love/hate/love relationship with a sizable portion of her fan base after finding religion: gay men. She seems to love the sinners, hates the sin, loves the sinners' money. Is *Crayons* just another necessary dip at the well? Heaven Knows.

Donna is Back!!!!
This is a AWESOME CD. For those of you who are and want to be a Donna Summer fan yes the Queen is back as one of her song says. From the first song "Stamp your feet" to the last song on the CD this is a extraordinary piece of work by the Disco Queen of the late 70's and early 80's. She has mixed so many types of music in this CD. The lady can still sang and is as beautiful as ever. It's a short review I just hope you buy the CD as I did and enjoy it as much as I have.

Hey, Donna, Glad to Hear Your Voice Again!
Well, friends, it's not her best, but it's certainly not her worst, by any means.

Yes, there's the techno-electronic-clubbin' aspect to the CD -- no doubt the target audience for it -- but there are some good radio-friendly numbers here that are very reminiscent of Donna's work of the past. "Stamp Your Feet" has a great message in the lyrics -- gotta keep goin' -- and it's got a great beat! "I'm a Fire" makes me think of "I Feel Love," another one of Donna's masterpieces.

The "Hattie Mae Blanche Dubois" thing -- or whatever the hell it is -- is ludicrous. I would have saved that for a show, not a record. Hattie is a more visual, rather than auditory, type of concept.

So I rate this CD to be an 'average' Donna Summer record -- better than "All Systems Go," but not as good as "Cats Without Claws." You really need to give a listen to Donna's 1991 effort, "Mistaken Identity" -- a four-star-plus effort that is highly underrated and disregarded. I've played that CD over and over. Get it, and you will not be disappointed. It's Donna with a twist.

We have to realize: Donna, as an artist, has evolved over the years. She is not an artist who chooses to stays in one rut, though it seems as if most fans want her to live out her career in disco. I respect Donna in that she's allowed herself to grow and to mature as an artist. She has a conscience, and her deep-rooted, spiritual feelings are reflected in many of her songs.

On a more frivolous note: The CD artwork is downright fun. Kudos to the designer. The concept of "Crayons" seems to imply that Donna uses all of the colors of the palette in her music -- not just one or two colors all the time.

From one of Donna's "Friends Unknown" --

The colors of love, Crayons!
I've loved Donna Summer since I was a teenager in the `70s. I've watched her career jump and dip, but I only ever felt completely happy listening to her voice. Crayons is a collection of different styles of music, but there is dance music for the "Classic Donna" fans. I've purchased the album and I was so impressed with I'm a Fire and Stamp Your Feet that I bought the CD maxi-singles - something I haven't done in a couple years. Each track is unique and from the heart. Thank you Donna, we've missed you. If you pass on this release you'll kick yourself someday when it's out of print! I'm doing that now regarding her 1982 collaboration with Quincy Jones.