Diana Ross

Diana Ross does not need to overpower the arrangement to hold its centre. Even when strings and supporting voices fill the space, a conversational inflection can remain the point of contact. Her 1970 solo debut invites us to follow that change of scale: a private-sounding sentence becomes something that can occupy a stage.

This is the first solo album after her departure from the Supremes, distinct from the self-titled 1976 record. Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson helped make both her speaking and singing voices part of the drama. Familiar material could acquire a different timescale. Ain’t No Mountain High Enough, previously recorded by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, became an extended interplay of speech, melody and accumulating accompaniment rather than a straightforward solo replication of the duet.

A soloist in company

Solo debut does not mean music made alone. The close lead voice, the supporting singers and the wider sweep of the strings occupy different apparent distances. Listen to what remains after Ross finishes a phrase. A response behind her can make room for the next entrance instead of simply covering a gap. On a second pass, follow those supporting voices rather than the tune. A large production can still feel as though one person is addressing another.

The long centre and what follows

Reach Out and Touch (Somebody’s Hand) establishes an inviting opening. Several compact songs lead towards the fifth track, the extended Ain’t No Mountain High Enough, where the treatment of time changes markedly. Yet that piece is not the album’s conclusion. Something On My Mind brings us back to a shorter form, and the sequence continues to Dark Side of the World. Hearing the famous track as one centre of gravity allows the surrounding songs to retain their own scale and purpose.

Album time and single time

Classic Motown’s retrospective distinguishes the long album arrangement from the subsequently edited single and identifies Paul Riser’s contribution to the arrangement. The linked eleven-song edition includes the approximately six-minute-eighteen-second performance. Memories formed by a singles compilation may therefore promise an earlier arrival than this version delivers. This route follows the original programme rather than added expanded-edition material. Let the time before the familiar refrain count as music too: anticipation is part of the performance, not an obstacle to its best-known passage.