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Rapture is the second album by American vocalist Anita Baker, released in 1986. This became Baker's breakout album and earning her two Grammy Awards. The album's first track, "Sweet Love", was a top 10 Billboard hit in addition to winning a Grammy Award. The album has sold over eight million copies worldwide, including five million in the US alone.
Background
In 1984, while Baker was signed to Beverly Glen Music which had released her 1983 album The Songstress, she was offered a considerably better recording contract with Elektra Records, part of Warner Communications. As she was having some difficulties with Beverly Glen, she accepted Warner's offer and notified Beverly Glen that she was no longer willing to perform under the terms of her contract with them. As Baker commenced working on her first album for Elektra, teaming up with her former Chapter 8 colleague Michael Powell as producer, Beverly Glen Music then attempted to sue Baker and subsequently Elektra/Warner to prevent the release of any new recordings by her. Baker's album was finished as the case was heard, and ultimately Beverly Glen Music's legal actions failed. The case was decided March 19, 1986 in favor of Baker/Elektra/Warner Communications Rapture was released the following day.
In a contemporary review for Rolling Stone, Rob Hoerburger regarded Rapture as a relatively "modest" album compared to more histrionic female singers, while praising the symbiotic relationship Baker shared with her band. Occasionally, he believed, the groove-based music lacked variety, and the singer drifted into "some superfluous scatting and pseudo-jazz harmony", but Hoerburger ultimately deemed her "an acquired but enduring taste". At the end of 1986, Rapture was ranked number 2 among the "Albums of the Year" by NME. It was voted the 23rd best album of the year in the Pazz & Jop, an annual poll of American critics, published by The Village Voice. Robert Christgau, the newspaper's lead music critic, was less impressed and viewed the record as merely a soulful, sexier version of soft rock and easy listening: "it's all husky, burnished mood, the fulfillment of the quiet-storm format black radio ... a reification of the human voice as vehicle of an expression purer than expression ever ought to be".
In 1989, Rapture was ranked number 36 on Rolling Stone's list of the 100 greatest albums from the 1980s. The same publication would later include the album as number 404 on their 2020 list of 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. In retrospect, AllMusic's Alex Henderson said, "Rapture's tremendous success made it clear that there was still a sizeable market for adult-oriented, more traditional R&B singing." According to The Mojo Collection (2007), "when provocative new trends in black music were exploding from the street by the month, Baker kept her head and made a traditional (i.e., with its roots in the '70s) soul record with brooding, slow-burn minor tunes of romantic celebration and earthy longing." According to CBC Music journalist Amanda Parris, "Baker defined quiet storm in the '80's and her album Rapture is one of the subgenre's milestones." Pitchfork placed the album at number 149 on its list of The 200 Best Albums of the 1980s.
Commercial performance
Rapture peaked at number 11 on the Billboard 200 in the United States and number 13 on the UK Albums Chart. Promoted with two hit singles in "Sweet Love" and "Caught Up in the Rapture", the album received significant airplay on both black radio and Top 40 formats, unlike Baker's 1983 debut The Songstress. By October 1987, Rapture had sold three million copies. It propelled Baker to stardom in soul and pop music during the late 1980s, winning two Grammy Awards and eventually sold over eight million copies worldwide.
