Daddy's Little Girls
Themes of faith, family, love, and patience reverberate through the soundtrack to celebrated director/ playwright/ actor Tyler Perry's filmDaddy's Little Girls. It's a typically excellent album from start to finish; even the songs that don't appear in the film and were "inspired by" it actually for once do soundinspiredby it, and seem in fact to have been written specifically for the movie. The record has gained some notoriety for including a song called "Family First," the first-ever recording by the Houston Family, pairing Whitney Houston with her mother Cissy, daughter Kristina, and her cousin Dionne (Warwick, that is). It's a joy to hear Whitney back in (almost) top form, though the soundtrack's best moment belongs to another collaboration, the remix of Anthony Hamilton's emotionally charged "Struggle No More" by Jaheim with Musiq Soulchild. Charles Moore's cover of Sam Cooke's "A Change Is Gonna Come" wins points just fortrying, and for not swathing the tune in modern production, but it can't help but fall short. Contributions by R. Kelly, Yolanda Adams, and Governor are reasons enough to own this moving collection.--Mike McGonigal