With Summer and Geffen parting ways in 1988, and the label opting to shelve her current album, Another Place And Time, the future of the artist was up in the air. Declining sales and being considered an older artist weren't aspects in her favor. However, she had one final ace up her sleeve, which would ultimately result in her last top forty Billboard Hot 100 hit.
At the suggestion of her husband, Donna set to work with producing trio Stock Aitken Waterman to record what would become Another Place And Time. However, as noted above, Geffen would opt to not release it, and instead part ways with the artist. This wouldn't be the first time the label had opted shelve her material, but it would be the last that that their decision to do so was wrong.
They had previously declined her 1981 recorded, I'm A Rainbow, telling her that they wouldn't release yet another Giorgio Moroder produced album, and then opted to not release what would become her biggest seller, She Works Hard For The Money in 1983. The latter would only be released at the time because of the tracks being handed over to Mercury as part of her settlement with the sister label, Casablanca Records. Ironically, it would also be Mercury and Casablanca who would ultimately release I'm A Rainbow in 1996.
Stock Aitken Waterman had proven success, working with top 80's acts, Bananarama, Rick Astley, and Kylie Minogue, to name a few. Despite this, it took convincing from the producing team to get Summer to trust them and release the reigns. Her relenting turned out to be wise, as the end result garnered what would be her the last top forty hit of her career with This Time I Know It's For Real. As a whole, Another Place And Time, released by Atlantic Records, received some good reviews but was also considered underwhelming.
The album ditches the conventional pop genre for a more dance R&B theme. It's serviceable, if you like late 80's dance music. However, if you're looking for the traditional Donna Summer album, you're not going to find that here.
Most of the tracks don't offer much, and that's a polite way of me saying that the album is relatively boring. Let me put this into perspective. While listening to this, I got sidetracked by researching Ace Frehley's solo albums, paused this to play a track from one of them, forgot about this album entirely, and started watching other videos on Youtube before finally remembering, and coming back to it. P.S. I also bought all three of Frehley's Comet's 80's albums.
By track eight, I audibly asked myself, "Is this over yet? This is boring." I pushed through the final remaining tracks, all for not. With exception of the aforementioned hit, Another Place In Time was a bust.
Atlantic would also release her 1991 follow-up, Mistaken Identity. However, Summer would return to Mercury who would release 1994's Christmas Spirit, and as mentioned already, her previously shelved I'm A Rainbow in 1996.
While she would remain relatively active, hosting one-off shows on VH1, performing shows, and writing her autobiography, it wouldn't be until 2008 that she would return to the studio to record what would become her last studio album, Crayons. The album would perform well for her, peaking at number seventeen on the Billboard Hot 200.
Unfortunately, life would deal a blow to the artist, who was diagnosed with lung cancer, and passed away in May of 2012. Summer speculated that she contracted the illness from the inhaling toxic fumes and dust during the events of 9/11. However, this has never been proven, and others speculate it came about from her earlier years when she did smoke, as well as repeated exposure to secondhand smoking in clubs throughout her earlier career.
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