The Vancouver Province - Ultra Sound
Fleetwood Mac’s beloved diva has always relied on a great producer to make her often pedestrian songs spring to life. Dave Stewart, who produced her first disc in 10 years with Glen Ballard, and wrote the music to some of its strongest tracks, might be no Lindsey Buckingham, but he’s been the midwife for what might, shockingly and unexpectedly, be Nicks’s best album. While some songs are expendable and most are simply too long, this is more consistently fun than we had any reason to expect.
STEVIE NICKS: In Your Dreams (Warner Music)
Calgary Herald — Mike Bell
It’s telling that there’s a song on the new Stevie Nicks album inspired by the new Moon film (yes, the film, not the book). Telling because it sets the tone for a dreary, ridiculously maudlin set of aC pap, the type aimed singularly at lonely, frumpy, single women in their mid’40s named Mallory, abigail or susan (but goes by “suze,” cuz it’s more fun!), who’ve given up on finding anyone or anything else to fill their lives. The material congeals into one amorphous blob of soft rock, and features every trite and obvious touchstone in the songwriter handbook, including: war, on the cringe-inducing soldier’s angel; epic tales of star-crossed love on wide sargossa sea (inspired, presumably, by the film, not the novel); and the now ubiquitous new orleans song, titled, quite imaginatively, new orleans. and the biggest crime is that, be it the original material or merely time, nicks no longer sounds like that vibrant gypsy singer of past days. she sounds like, well, like someone who gets inspired by Twilight films.
Smukt Stevie
Stevie Nicks. **** out of 6 Stars
Hvad: In Your Dreams,
producere: Dave Stewart og Glen Ballard.
Hvor: Reprise/Warner.
Denmark: Berlingske Tidende
Det er et vidunderligt genhør med en af rockhistoriens største kvindelige stemmer. Det er helt klassiske folk-sange, kærlighedsballader og grandiose rockschlagere. Sublimt produceret af Eurythmics’ Dave Stewart og Glen Ballard (Alanis Morissette). Og Stevie Nicks selv, for det er naturligvis om hende disse linjer roterer, lyder virkelig som den snart 63-årige levekvinde, hun er, med ridser, revner og buler. Det gælder både selve sangskrivningen og den vokal, man ikke har lyst til at leve uden. Bob Dylan vil elske denne plade, hendes gamle beau, Lindsey Buckingham, ligeså. Det er Nicks’ første soloskive i ti år, og hendes bedste siden de første solodrøn i startfirserne. Fremhæves må den gigantiske strygerbårne ballade »Italian Summer«, hvem der kan lytte til den uden at kny... Hvem der kan undgå at skære sig på »Soldier’s Angel« og synge med på den flyvske titelsang. Et herligt comeback.
Every now and again she gets a bad review, but she is doing great review wise. The people who don't like the album seem to take personal issues.
ReplyDeleteYeah I keep reminding myself that the people who are giving bad reviews really go way off track. Like, they are still angry that she snubbed them 20 years ago or something. Of course I'm just rolling my eyes at these characters. The people who are handing out the great reviews actually sound like they've listened to IYD more than once. ya know? Much deeper, reflective dissections.
ReplyDeleteI've been a fan since the first Fleetwood Mac album with Stevie & Lindsey and seen the Mac and Stevie over 100 times, and spent over 30 years listening to all their music. Well I have now listened to the new CD over and over and I am sad to say I don't love it either. Maybe if they'd have left off some of the filler (For What It's Worth, Ghost Are Gone & You May Be The One) it wouldn't sound as depressing as it does. And it is odd that she said this music was so much fun to record, because there is not much happiness on this CD. Stevie writes much better melodies than Dave Stewart does here, and most of his producing is kind of flat. Too many songs that are extremely rambling with no real rock beat. Her vocals are also not her best, recorded very nasally. And she has certainly written better lyrics, so much vague imagery throughout. When you think of her wonderful way of laying a lyric over a melody (Angel, Outside The Rain, Sara and so many others), but that is not present on most of these songs. I am ready for the next Fleetwood Mac CD, Lindsey produces her so much better than this.
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