In a sense,
Belinda Carlisle
's
A Woman & a Man
is a companion record to her first solo album. It arrived in 1996, ten years after
Belinda
, and it also functioned as something of a break from
the Go-Go's
, as it was her first album after the group's mid-'90s reunion. That's not where the similarities end: the title track has some
Motown
propulsion,
Charlotte Caffey
comes in to co-write "Kneel at Your Feet," and instead of
Tim
,
Carlisle
covers
Neil Finn
. All these echoes are somewhat buried underneath the studio gloss created by producer
David Tickle
, a veneer that can get too thick on the ballads but nevertheless is often pleasingly expensive. This is a big-budget studio album from an era when they were common and, in retrospect, its overblown adult contemporary has its charms, as do the slightly uneven songs -- tunes that veer from the precision-tuned pop of
Roxette
Per Gessle
's "Always Breaking My Heart" and "Love Doesn't Live Here" to
Finn
's exquisitely sculpted "He Goes On." Perhaps the album could've used a dose of livelier material but
Tickle
's grand production suits the material and flatters
, two elements that turn
into one of her better records. [
Edsel
's 2014 expansion of
runs two CDs and a DVD. The first disc contains a remastered version of the proper album, supplemented by two acoustic versions ("In Too Deep," "Circle in the Sand"), while the second rounds up six B-sides and unreleased cuts, another six live tracks, and three remixes of "Remember September." The DVD has promo videos for the four singles: "In Too Deep," "Always Breaking My Heart," "Love in the Key of C," and "California."] ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine