Crayons [Digipak] (CD - 2008)

Personnel: Donna Summer (vocals, background vocals); Robert "Crit" Castillo (guitar); Angelo Petrucci (acoustic guitar); Tom Hemby (electric guitar, steel guitar, harmonica); Miri Ben-Ari (violin); Fred Kron (keyboards, bass synthesizer, programming); Sebastian Arocha Morton (keyboards, Moog synthesizer, programming); Jamie Houston (percussion, programming, background vocals); Davey Warf Rat Chegwidden, Iki Levy (percussion); Lester Mendez, Toby Gad (programming); Jakob Petren, Nathan DiGesare (keyboard programming); Josue Sejour, Jenny Berggren, Mary Gaines-Bernard, Bruce Sudano (background vocals).

Audio Mixers: Manny Marroquin; Jamie Houston; John Jaszcz; Serban Ghenea; Toby Gad; Brian Malouf.

Recording information: Chalice Studio, Los Angeles, CA; Criteria Studio, Miami, FL; DY Studios, Venice, CA; Echo Studios; Henson Recording Studios, Hollywood, CA; Hit Factory, Miami, FL; Paradise; ROCAsound Studios, Burbank, CAScrimshaw Studio, Nashvil; Strawberrybee Studios, New York, NY; Studio City Sound, Los Angeles, CA; The Village Recording Studios, Los Angeles, CA; WEstlake Studios, Los Angeles, CA.

Photographer: Michael Brandt.

Arrangers: J.R. Rotem; Toby Gad.

Preeminent pop diva Donna Summer returned with CRAYONS in 2008, 17 years after her last studio album, and some 30 years after her tenure as the reigning queen of disco. Always a flexible, powerhouse vocalist, Summer sounds as good as ever on CRAYONS, offering up her patented combination of smooth sultriness and gospel punch.

But the effort is no mere rehash of Summer's glory days. The old dance-pop vibe is still paramount, but the sensibility is contemporary, drawing on the sounds of 21st-century club music with strains of hip-hop, Caribbean sounds, techno, and Euro-pop, as well as adult contemporary balladry, all of it beautifully bound together by Summer's still inimitable style.

Donna Summer sounds younger here than on her previous studio album, 1991's Mistaken Identity, or just about any of the isolated tracks that surfaced throughout the previous 17 years, which is a good thing as frequently as it is a bad thing. Crayons benefits from Summer's effortless energy; she was clearly into making this album, and her voice is as able and flexible as ever. However, almost all of the material with which she has to work -- several stylistic angles are taken with the likes of Danielle Brisebois (Natasha Bedingfield, Kelly Clarkson) Greg Kurstin (Lily Allen, Nelly Furtado), J.R. Rotem (Leona Lewis, Trey Songz), and several others -- would make more sense on an album by a female teen pop group from the U.K. or, in some cases, a young adult catering to the coffeehouse market. One exception, if only from a lyrical standpoint, is "The Queen Is Back," where Summer refers to herself in the third person, as well as her past: "So many years ago on the radio/She crept into your soul and learned to love you." But it's really the type of move you'd expect from an aspiring diva on her second or third album. In-fashion vocal effects, which Summer certainly does not need, detract from a handful of these tracks, but as a whole, the album won't have trouble pleasing fans who just want to hear their queen have a blast and tear it up. ~ Andy Kellman minimize