YOUNG, GIFTED AND BLACK ARETHA FRANKLIN ATLANTIC

If you’d asked me what I thought of Aretha Franklin’s new album around the time it came out, I would have said it was a terrible disappointment, a hodge-podge of an. album which seemed organized primarily to clean the shelves at Atlantic Studios, rather like a housewife collects her leftovers before they spoil. But ask me now, after three or four weeks of almost daily listening and relistening — go ahead, ask me, and I’d have to tell you I love it. I couldn’t do without it. It remains a disappointment but when you’re expecting the heavens to open up, disappointments are inevitable. If all failures were this exciting, who would need successes?