Barbra Streisand’s first album of duets, 2014’s Partners, was one of the biggest-selling albums of the year, giving the diva her 10th number one album on the Billboard charts, and giving her the distinction of having a number one album in every decade from the 1960s to the 2010s. (She would beat her own record with 2016’s Encore—another duets album that also went to number one.) Like her peers Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Barry Manilow, Streisand sought late-career sales by teaming up with music superstars.

Judging this album will depend on several factors, namely one’s affection for Barbra Streisand and/or any of the A-List superstars who share the mic with her on this set, and whether these duets feel organic or phoned in. An icon of Streisand’s stature cannot help but come off as somewhat imposing and on a duets album, especially if she’s co-starring with a younger performer, the effect can be impersonal. Duets on albums like these can often feel as if the celebrities are singing at each other instead of with each other. (On Sinatra’s duets albums, the music veteran’s vocals were captured separately from those of his guest stars.)

For her first set, Streisand got together a group of major hitmakers including Michael Bublé, Blake Shelton, and John Legend and fellow legends like Stevie Wonder, Lionel Richie, and an electronically resurrected Elvis Presley. For the sequel, the list is no less impressive: Hozier, Sam Smith, and an out-of-leftfield Laufey appeal to younger listeners, while she also tapped peers like Paul McCartney, James Taylor, and Bob Dylan. Streisand is also accompanied on a track by Mariah Carey and Ariane Grande, two pop divas who owe a tremendous musical debt to her.

The most interesting song on this album is “The Very Thought Of You,” an old standard from the 1930s which features Bob Dylan. Dylan and Streisand share a strange history—not because they crossed paths, but because their storied histories tell such different accounts of pop music of the mid-century. They are both products of the counterculture, but Dylan personified the movement, spearheading a musical revolution and becoming a pioneer of 20th century popular music. His lyrics were often quixotic, mysterious, and poetic, a contrast to the more literal style of the Great American Songbook. Dylan’s work scored a particularly difficult period in American history when women’s rights, civil rights, Vietnam, and civil unrest changed culture. His approach to music—particularly his idiosyncratic vocalising as well as the crafted image he curated that spoke to the Beat generation—was a startling blast of sound to pop music of the 1960s.

Streisand couldn’t have been more different. Though she was initially seen as an oddball and a kook, she came from a musical background that relied more on the sounds of pop standards, musical theatre, and pre-rock pop. Though a masterful interpreter of Gershwin or Porter, she  felt alienated by contemporaries like Dylan. “We came to be famous at the same time,” she pointed out to Howard Stern in an interview. “We were singing in clubs in the Village…I never could quite understand the sound or the lyrics.”

Dylan and Streisand sang in Greenwich Village in the 1960s, when the area was a fertile point for alternative and bohemian culture; however, even within this shared history, Streisand’s days in the Village was tied to queer history while Dylan appealed to the Beat poets and folk-rock movements. There were intersections and overlaps between the two distinct audiences, and yet, the chasm was wide enough that Streisand felt somewhat alienated by the movement coming out of the neighbourhood.

Despite the vast differences between the two, their paths almost crossed when Dylan wrote “Lay Lady Lay” with Streisand in mind. The singer-songwriter was an admirer of hers and penned the tune for her 1969 album What About Today? which saw marked shift towards contemporary pop. The two shared correspondences throughout the decades, even hinting at potential collaborations.

That their eventual joint effort would be a pop standard isn’t surprising. Despite her age, Streisand has an affinity for pop standards that was more common for singers a generation older than she; and despite his songwriting genius, Dylan has also recorded well-received albums of pop standards and demonstrated a facility with the genre. On “The Very Thought Of You” he sounds quite beautiful. Dylan’s distinct, nasal delivery has polarized some listeners who suggested that his genius and legacy lay in his poetry; on his song with Streisand, he sounds gorgeous. His weathered, aged voice is an appealing, burlap-like contrast to Streisand’s still-supple and satiny crooning. It’s a remarkable recording.

In her interview with Howard Stern, Streisand also admitted to feeling distanced from the Beatles. (One listen to her woefully Vegas-y take on “With A Little Help From My Friends” illustrates her ineptitude with the Lennon/McCartney songbook.) In spite of this confession, Paul McCartney joins Streisand on “My Valentine,” an original song from his album of pop standards, Kisses On The Bottom (2012). If Streisand was to duet with a Beatle, it makes sense that it would be Paul McCartney; of the four, McCartney’s musical point of view most closely aligned with Streisand’s. It’s also why McCartney’s crack at the Great American Songbook was very good. While not as powerful as the Dylan duet, “My Valentine” is another moving moment on the record. The song’s arrangement is a canny marriage of pre-rock pop and MOR pop balladry—the kind of sound that Streisand excelled at.

Because of the towering excellence of the Dylan and McCartney duets, her effort with James Taylor feels slight. Sonically, Streisand displayed an ease with 1970s singer-songwriter pop, successfully covering songs by the genre’s stalwarts like Carole King, Joni Mitchell, and Laura Nyro. Taylor appears on the album warbling his 1977 album cut, “Secret O’ Life.” The song’s lyrics are handled with suitable wisdom by the two stars, who lend the song experience. But the song’s sumptuous production sounds at odds with the lilting simplicity of the melody. (Taylor’s original is lovely and far better.) Sting’s “Fragile” is similarly muddled with an overwrought production that buries the song’s beauty.

One of the major highlights on The Secret of Life is the meeting of Streisand, Mariah Carey, and Ariana Grande on “One Heart, One Voice.” It’s clear that both Carey and Grande have been largely influenced by Streisand—when listening to the grand, extravagant ballads the two younger divas sing, one can hear Streisand’s impact. The three singers seem to share a similar way to performing: showing off the sheer, stunning beauty of their voices, before unleashing their impressive lung power to hit those skyscraper-high notes. The over-the-top arrangements and high drama and camp of this diva summit is satisfyingly showy and ornate.

Streisand also scores high points with the sterling “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” which joins her with Hozier, whose powerful voice complements hers beautifully. Laufey provides another attractive moment on the record with her self-penned tune “Letter To My 13 Year Old Self.” And Sam Smith proves to be a great duet partner on the Disney-like pop ballad “To Lose You Again.”

Not all of The Secret of Life works. Unfortunately, Tim McGraw’s gifts are wasted on the gloppy dirge “I Love Us.” And her duet with Josh Groban should have worked, but it’s a tired and dreary shout fest. And perhaps the most disappointing track is “Love Will Survive,” an otherwise beautiful ballad (featured in The Tattooist Of Auschwitz last year) that leaves Seal’s soulful rasp lost and aimless among the lush orchestration.

The mediocre tracks on the album highlight the main issues of Streisand’s recording career—especially in the later stage of her career. Though a brilliant singer whose voice has remained beautiful and strong, she has a tendency to indulge in pop shlock. On an important song like “Love Will Survive,” this heavy-handed approach undermines the importance of the song and its message. And on the pair of ballads with McGraw and Groban, it makes her work sound bland and uninspiring.

But listening to her excellent work with Bob Dylan and Paul McCartney as well as her highly enjoyable song with Mariah Carey and Ariana Grande shows that even so late in the game—Secret Of Life is her 37th studio album—she’s capable of making some great music. Though she’s said she has closed the chapter on her film career, the high quality of most of this album makes me hope that she will continue to record more music.

Rating: B

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