Lead Me On

by Amy HansonMaxine Nightingale's fifth album, and her first to make the American charts since her debut, also marked the singer's maiden outing on the Windsong label. The change of surroundings necessarily brought a minor change in style as Nightingale stood back from the most overt R&B stylings of old, and began shaping herself towards a wider based audience. It was not necessarily a successful move. Although the title track brought her a memorable Top Five hit, the remainder of the album seems a little uncertain. Songs like "You Are The Most Important Person In your Life" and "(Bringing Out) The Girl In Me" (a minor hit later in 1979), might have stood out in their immediate surroundings, but sandwiched amid the pulsing beats of the disco inferno elsewhere, her moody intentions were swept completely by the wayside. Although Nightingale's voice remains a thing of remarkable beauty, too much of Lead Me On does in fact lead the listener on, the material never matching the performance, but forever hinting that it might.