And So Much More

Linda Eder's second album was in effect a follow-up to the 1992 studio cast album of composer Frank Wildhorn's The Scarlet Pimpernel, even repeating a track, "I'll Forget You," from that release. Wildhorn co-produced And So Much More with the singer and wrote or co-wrote eight of its 13 tracks. Eder and Wildhorn conceived of her as a personality singer in the tradition of Barbra Streisand (her vocal timbre inescapably recalled Streisand, but so did her phrasing, which meant the similarity was intended), and the songs tended to be lush, dramatic ballads that gave her plenty of opportunity to emote. For a change of pace, Wildhorn threw in a couple of neo-swing exercises. The duo boldly announced their ambitions with their choice of covers, usually standards closely identified with major singers, such as "The Man That Got Away" (Judy Garland), "All the Way" (Frank Sinatra), and "Bridge Over Troubled Water" (Art Garfunkel). Eder had the pipes, but not the seasoning, to carry off such appropriations, while Wildhorn's stylized, generic songs, seemingly beamed in from an alternate universe where rock & roll never happened, had only the range, not the distinctiveness, to showcase her effectively. You could see what they were going for; they just didn't quite get it.