in his review for The Village Voice, Robert Christgau found that Franklin "hasn't done anything near this good in over a dozen [years]. It couldn't have happened without the top-forty revival, and it couldn't have happened without Narada Michael Walden, who unhesitatingly plugged his first legend into one pop format after another and came up with classics almost every time."
in his assessment for The Village Voice, Robert Christgau discovered that Franklin "hasn't achieved anything close to this quality in over a dozen [years]. It couldn't have occurred without the top-forty resurgence, and it couldn't have happened without Narada Michael Walden, who unconditionally promoted his first icon into various pop formats and produced masterpieces almost every time."