Minnie Riperton – Adventures In Paradise

This one is starting to get a bit pricier, to the point where I hesitate to call it "cheap heat", but what a fantastic album. If you can find a clean copy for $30.00, that's money well spent. Amazing pressing, too - just explodes out of the speakers.

The late great Minnie Riperton will forever be immortalized in pop culture as a one-hit-wonder: the spirited five-and-a-half octaved songbird behind one of the sweetest hits of the 1970s, "Lovin' You." But as is the case with many undervalued talents, the breadth of her work and artistry has long stood in her biggest hit's shadow. It's a great injustice, as she recorded several great albums during her brief career. 1975's Adventures in Paradise is one of them. An elegantly lush and sensuous follow-up to her 1974 breakthrough album, Perfect Angel, Paradise found Riperton embracing an idiosyncratic, jazz-informed melding of R&B, funk, adult pop, and soft rock that reflected her maturity as an artist and woman. Where its predecessor, Perfect Angel encapsulated a young woman's journey with falling in and out of love, Riperton and her husband/principal co-writer Richard Rudolph conceived songs that touched on a wise woman's affirmations on intimacy, life, self-care, family. While it was deemed a commercial flop upon its initial 1975 release for not equaling the sales of its predecessor, Paradise has gained immense recognition over the years, in more ways than one: in hip hop, it rose as a sampling holy grail; in R&B, its laid-back, hypnotic sophistication is still keyed by many artists.

the lion attacked her during the photoshoot of the (beautiful) cover, there's a video on youtube where she explains that

perfect album ! We love you Minnie

I have an early 1980's CD on Rainbow label (RCD 1157) AMCOS. It has the silver going all the way to the centre hole. Possibly German or Japanese pressing? Most likely an Australian release.