POP WEEKEND : REVIEW : Cole’s Show Is Heavy on Hits, Light on Emotion

It’s fascinating how quickly Natalie Cole has transformed herself from a performer with serious personal problems into one whose concerts frequently turn into virtual love feasts.

Saturday at the Celebrity Theatre in Anaheim, Cole arrived on a Southland stage armed for the first time in nearly a decade with a hit album (and three hit singles). But the accomplishment probably didn’t make much difference to the members of her audience, many of whom appeared primarily concerned with reaching the edge of the stage to present flowers, gifts and miscellaneous love offerings.

Cole seemed genuinely touched by the outpouring of emotion and responded with a program calculated to keep the toes tapping and the energy level high.

Most of her set, which was devoted in large part to selections from her “Everlasting” album, typified both her strengths and her flaws. She has a warm voice, with some of the mellow burriness of her father (Nat “King” Cole), she is a powerful rhythmic performer, and she brings a sweeping sense of gospel-styled passion to many of her interpretations.

There’s no questioning the dynamism of her singing on such pieces as “Jump Start” and “I Live for Your Love,” nor the energy and authority with which she dominated the stage. Too often, however, she lapsed into simple shouting, pushing many of her numbers into overcooked emotional climaxes.

In addition, Cole also is a singer who, despite her recent successes, seems limited by her material. Virtually every song was dominated by the obvious intent to produce a hit single--with funk-driven rhythmic underpinnings, verses that set up the choruses and hooks based on such lines as “I get the urge to merge” and “You gotta love me, you gotta give it to me.”

There is, of course, nothing wrong with lusting after hit singles, and Cole has had her share, including the current Bruce Springsteen-penned “Pink Cadillac”--one of the best pieces she does.

The problem is that a program consisting of one single after another soon begins to have all the emotional depth of a jukebox.

One of the few pieces that took a different slant was “More Than the Stars,” written by Cole with her cousin and musical director, Eddie Cole. Spun out over a rocking Latin rhythm, the song triggered one of Cole’s more fascinating interpretations.

If she and her cousin have more such material up their sleeves, Cole just might be able to play her game at a deeper level, beyond the superficiality of the singles meat market and into the artistry that hovers beneath the surface of her singing.