Stickin' to My Guns is the sixteenth studio album by Etta James, released in 1990.[9][10] It was nominated for a Grammy for "Best Contemporary Blues Recording".[11]
The album contains a duet with rapper Def Jef. Although it reunited her with several Muscle Shoals musicians, James later expressed ambivalence about the more electronic sound of the album.[5][12]Stickin' to My Guns was produced by Barry Beckett.[7]
Rolling Stone called the album "a nonstop dance party filled with house rockers like 'Love to Burn' and turn-the-lights-down-low, slow-grind numbers like 'Your Good Thing (Is About to End)'."[13]MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide deemed it "a largely unsuccessful attempt to incorporate rap and hip-hop into a more traditional R&B context."[6]The New York Times called it "the best album Aretha Franklin never made, as Ms. James belts out songs about lovers and deceivers."[14]
^DeCurtis, Anthony; Henke, James; George-Warren, Holly, eds. (1992). The Rolling Stone Album Guide: Completely New Reviews : Every Essential Album, Every Essential Artist (3rd ed.). Random House. p. 358. ISBN0-679-73729-4. Of her two Island albums, Stickin ' to My Guns best shows her adapting a hard R&B approach to a contemporary funk-rock sound.
