Barbra Streisand - A Love Like Ours

Pauline Kael once took note of some romantic musical numbers in a Marx Brothers film that were intended, according to a movie executive, "for people to identify with." "What people?" she sensibly asked. One can only imagine what Kael might have to say about A Love Like Ours, a Barbra Streisand self-celebration disguised as a paean to her romance with hubby James Brolin (The Car). "When love like ours arrives, we guard it with our lives," Streisand emotes on the disc's near-title track, unavoidably bringing to mind an early South Park episode's battle against a monster-robot version of the superstar. Draped in gauzy arrangements and the occasional "soulful" (her word) Kenny G sax solo, Streisand even manages to make a few truly great songs ("The Music That Makes Me Dance," "Isn't It a Pity?") sound overbearing in this context. --Rickey Wright