When a Woman Loves (Patti LaBelle album)

By 2000, Patti LaBelle had achieved solo success with at least one platinum album and four gold albums. Four of the certified successes were with MCA Records, a company she had been an artist with since 1985. With the guidance of the label and with her husband, Armstead Edwards, LaBelle had finally achieved the solo success that had mostly eluded her since leaving the flashy pop group, Labelle, in 1976. It had been three years since her last album, the gold-certified Flame, which yielded the modestly popular hit, "When You Talk About Love". After winning a second Grammy Award for her live album, Live! One Night Only, LaBelle laid low. The marriage of LaBelle and Edwards seemed to be solid but in early 2000, the couple made news by announcing a trial separation after 31 years of marriage. The news shocked fans of the singer, who had told the media that the couple's relationship was built on their opposite differences. Following news of the separation, LaBelle returned to the recording studio to work on her next studio album for MCA Records. Noting the modest success they had with LaBelle's original 1989 version of "If You Asked Me To", LaBelle and the song's writer, Diane Warren agreed to work together on LaBelle's new album. ==Recording==

When A Woman Loves featured production from not only Warren and friend Denise Rich, who co-wrote several tracks, but also longtime producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, producers of LaBelle's last two hits, "The Right Kinda Lover" and "When You Talk About Love". Upon its release, when critics heard the new tracks, they thought that LaBelle's impending divorce from her husband Edwards was the cause of the sound from the tracks and from the singer's voice, though LaBelle would later deny such stories. Because Edwards had also served as LaBelle's manager for nearly 30 years, Edwards also left his position as manager leaving that position to the couple's son Zuri. ==Critical reception==

In his review for Vibe, Dimitri Ehrlich wrote: "Listening to it is like eating 12 slices of gooey chocolate butter cake—one can only digest so much lost trust, dashed hope, and soaring recovery in 45 minutes. Warren specializes in hooks and schmaltz, delivering a killer dose of both here. But Patti LaBelle, who could sing VCR manual instructions and make you cry, doesn't need songs that bang you over the dome with clues about when you're supposed to feel sad [...] The vaunted power of this lioness is still mighty to behold." AllMusic editor Ed Hogan found that When a Woman Loves "displays much of the appealing warmth that has endeared her to millions of fans. It also marks another tribute to the most successful songwriter of the '90s, Diane Warren [...] Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis produced the bulk of this mostly mellow album that is sprinkled with Labelle's intimately voiced listener-aimed spoken interludes. Highlights are the Khris Kellow-produced "If I Was a River," "Why Do Hurt Each Other," and "Tell Where It Hurts"." Entertainment Weekly critic Craig Seymour felt that "bluesy belter Patti LaBelle should've been able to add some soul-searing fire to the soggy tunes of hit songwriter Diane Warren, who penned most of the ballad-heavy album When a Woman Loves. But LaBelle mostly drowns in Warren's sap. Only when she picks up the tempo on retro-disco twirlers like Time Will does LaBelle infuse the hackneyed lyrics with new attitude." ==Commercial performance==

Upon its October 2000 release, When a Woman Loves failed to make an impact on the Billboard 200 or the R&B albums chart, peaking at number 63 on the former chart before dropping out of the charts after only ten weeks. The record became LaBelle's first album since This Christmas (1990), to not be RIAA-certified. The sole single from When a Woman Loves, "Call Me Gone", likewise failed to chart on the Hot 100, and was given poor radio promotion. Though the title track did receive some airplay, and LaBelle performed the song occasionally during the record's promotion, it was never released officially as a single. ==Track listing==

All tracks written by Diane Warren. Notes • signifies a co-producer ==Charts==