Thursday, May 05, 2011

Reviews: Stevie Nicks "In Your Dreams "Conjures Early Stevie Nicks Magic"

4 out of 5 stars  
Stevie Nicks In Your Dreams
All Music Guide

Perhaps it’s all down to Stevie Nicks being at peace with her legacy, perhaps she was coaxed back toward the ‘70s by producer David A. Stewart, perhaps it’s the presence of Lindsey Buckingham on “Soldier’s Angel,” or perhaps it’s the fact that she excavated a 1976 song called “Secret Love” for this album, but In Your Dreams is Stevie’s first solo album to embrace the sound of Fleetwood Mac at their prime. Nicks never exactly ran away from the Mac, but her ‘80s solo hits were tempered by a steely demeanor and her subsequent solo albums strove too hard to recapture the magic that In Your Dreams conjures so easily. Despite the quite deliberate connections to her past, In Your Dreams never feels labored; the hippie folk drifts into the mystic pop, punctuated by some witchy rock that may be polished a bit too sharply by Stewart, yet he manages to keep everything warm despite its cleanliness. Stewart’s real coup is focus: he keeps everything tight and purposeful, letting each element snugly fit together so In Your Dreams winds up capturing the essence of Stevie Nicks, which -- as her previous three decades of solo albums prove -- is no easy feat.

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Stevie Nicks, In your dream.
Sydsvenska dagbladet, Sweden
by Anders Jaderud.
grade 3/5.

The fact that Fleetwood Mac in recent years has become an increasingly frequent source of inspiration to contemporary rock band creates a good starting point for Stevie Nicks comeback.

"In Your Dreams" is the first studio album since 2001 and although Dave Stewart is a somewhat dull choice as producer, the 62-year-old singer sounds convenient in the lavish mainstream rock with some batik patterned mystery. The record certainly contains a few misguided track, as stilted ZZ Top-bogie "Ghosts Are Gone". But on the other hand, succeeds Nick make pliable California radiopop by Edgar Allan Poe's 1800's poem "Annabel Lee" and she keeps on the right side of kitsch border in "Italian Summer", a song that had had Tony Soprano to sob like a child.

Best Track: Secret Love

Swedish original text:
Att Fleetwood Mac på senare år blivit en allt flitigare inspirationskälla för samtida rockband skapar ett bra utgångsläge för Stevie Nicks comeback. ”In Your Dreams” är förs­ta studioalbumet sedan 2001 och även om Dave Stewart är ett små­trist val som producent låter den 62-åriga sångerskan bekväm i den påkostade mainstreamrocken med viss batikmönstrad mystik. Skivan innehåller visserligen ett par omdömeslösa spår, som styltiga ZZ Top-boogien ”Ghosts Are Gone”. Men å andra sidan lyckas Nicks göra följsam kalifornisk radiopop av Edgar Allan Poes 1800-talsdikt ”Annabel Lee” och hon håller sig på rätt sida kitschgränsen i schlageraktiga ”Italian Summer”, en låt som hade fått Tony Soprano att snyfta som ett barn.


Bästa spår: Secret Love


Stevie Nicks: a worthy chapter in rock history.
Borås Tidning, Sweden.
By Fredrik Söderlund.
grade 3/5.

Stevie Nicks is a survivor. In my camp, she has always been Fleetwood Mac's strongest card and her hoarse, trembling voice are still managing to touch on the deep.

In Your Dreams is the first solo album in ten years and more than half the disc has Eurythmics Dave Stewart to help with the songwriting. Unfortunately, it's were it limp significantly. The last five Stewart-tracks is much weaker than the album's first half. If we focus on the highlights instead, we find Bob Dylan-colored "For What It's Worth, " blue tongue "Soldier's Angel" along with old partner Lindsey Buckingham.

In your dreams is a bit shaky but at the same time mature and it is worthy chapter in Nicks present rock history.

Swedish original text:
Stevie Nicks är en överlevare av rang. I mitt läger har hon alltid varit Fleetwood Macs starkaste kort och hennes hesa, darrande stämma lyckas fortfarande beröra på djupet.


In your dreams är det första soloalbumet på tio år och mer än halva skivan har Eurythmics-hjärnan Dave Stewart som låtskrivarpartner. Det är dessvärre också där det haltar markant. De sista fem Stewart-spåren är betydligt svagare än albumets första hälft.  Om vi fokuserar på höjdpunkterna istället hittar vi Bob Dylan-färgade ”For what it’s worth”, bluestunga ”Soldier’s angel” tillsammans med gamla parhästen Lindsey Buckingham.

In your dreams är en lite svajigt men samtidigt vuxet och värdigt kapitel i Nicks pågående rockhistoria.

Mick Fleetwood's Appearance on Maui with Neal Preston

Mick Fleetwood made an appearance hosting an event last night on Maui at Celebrites Galleries for Rock Photographer Neal Preston.  Neal has a long history with Fleetwood Mac and it's members dating back as far as the early 70's. 

According to Suzanne Kayian, Freelance entertainment writer for Maui Magazine, Rhythm and Views, Mick was gracious and posed with new collectors purchasing Neals work.

Stevie Nicks releases her first new album in 10 years a collaboration with record producer and songwriter Dave Stewart from The Eurythmics






Telegraph.co.uk
A lot has changed in the music business since Stevie Nicks released her last original work almost a decade ago, but the 62-year-old singer – who doesn't even own a computer – believes that producing quality music with a focus on quality is something that never goes out of style.

"There is no autotuning, nothing is fake about this record. It's all real, we can go onstage and play every one of these songs," she said.

It was Stewart who approached Nicks last year about co-writing songs, a concept she initially found foreign.

"I'm very selfish with my writing, I don't want to share that process with anybody, I like sitting in there and having that suffering thing, with my 50 pages of words taped to the piano, where I'm taking little bits and pieces from 20 poems at once, and that was something that I thought that was the way I wanted it to be," she said.

But the singer admits she had an "epiphany" after sitting down with Stewart. "My life changed, the golden doors opened, and I realised and understood why Paul McCartney and John Lennon wrote together," she said. "He knows a thousand chords, I know seven. I have 40 pages of poetry, he doesn't have 40 pages of poetry, so we can bring that to each other".

When it came to recording the album Nicks invited studio staff and performers to her Pacific Palisades home in southern California. Performers were encouraged to lounge around between sessions at the spacious mansion overlooking the ocean, a freeing experience that hearkened back to the Fleetwood Mac days.

"You know, you go into a studio, and its $2300 a day, and you have rules there. When you're here at a house, you can have food, you have the kitchen, you can like hang out. If you don't want to work, you cannot work, so it was a fantastic experience, and I hope that experience made its way onto the tape," Nicks said.

In Your Dreams was released by Reprise Records on May 3.

(Review) Stevie Nicks 'In Your Dreams' "Moonlight (A Vampire's Dream) is classic Nicks"

STEVIE NICKS - IN YOUR DREAMS (WARNER) Star rating: * * * 1/2
Herald Sun - Australia
Cameron Adams

IT'S been a decade since Stevie Nicks released a solo album. The cover of drought breaker In Your Dreams sees Stevie in a forest, in a flowing dress, with a horse. Naturally.

It's business as usual on the musical front as well. Musical cohort Dave Stewart (Eurythmics) guides her through country lite (In Your Dreams) to mystical English-lit gypsy rock (Wide Sargasso Sea) - she even shares a writing credit with Edgar Allen Poe on the soft rocking, poetry-quoting Annabel Lee, which harks back to Nicks in Fleetwood Mac's '70s glory days. See also For What It's Worth.

Moonlight (A Vampire's Dream) is classic Nicks - you can almost hear the scarves swishing on the mic stand - while to add to the familiarity Lindsay Buckingham guests on the surprisingly gritty Soldier's Angel.

Sounds like: surrogate Fleetwood Mac album.
In a word: Californian


STEVIE NICKS 'In Your Dreams' Friday... and in your country NOVEMBER

Get ready Australia and New Zealand... Not only is Stevie's new album being released on Friday... She's coming to your neck of the wood!  

New album In Your Dreams will be in stores and online Friday May 6th.
'In Your Dreams' 
is her first album of new material in a decade and was co-produced by former Eurythmic Dave Stewart along with 
Glen Ballard.

If you missed the video interview... Stevie announced during a Perezhilton interview posted earlier today that she will be touring Australia in November...Not sure if that also means New Zealand.. we'll have to see.  It's a long way off from now.. But oh so exciting for you! 

Now if she could just factor in the UK and Europe!

Wednesday, May 04, 2011

Based on First Day Sales... Stevie Nicks Will Debut At Either No. 5 or 6

BUY STEVIE'S NEW ALBUM THIS WEEK... GIVE HER A HUGE OPENING WEEK... A SUMMER TOUR DEPENDS ON IT... CHECK OUT THE PEREZ VIDEO INTERVIEW!

ADELE’S 21 ROLLS A SEVEN FOR MOTHER’S DAY WEEKEND
Hits Daily Double

This Adele album is a mother.

The XL/Columbia U.K. pop diva is rolling sevens with 21, which will spend its seventh week at #1 next week, adding what appears to be another 120-150k to its 1.4 million U.S. total, thanks to Mom’s Day Weekend. That’s based on one-day sales reports from those music retailers who have stopped searching for Osama bin Laden.

Next week, the real battle will be for #2 between a pair of Capitol/EMI entries. The Beastie Boys’ long-awaited Hot Sauce Committee Part Two, the sequel to an album that never officially came out, looks to be in the 100-110k range, the same as the next volume of the Now 38 series on the same label.

Indie stalwart Sub Pop’s indie answer to Crosby, Stills and Nash, Fleet Foxes’ Helplessness Blues is looking at an impressive first-week total of 80-90k, which should be good for Top 4.

American Idol judge Jennifer Lopez’s Island/IDJ bow, Love?, looks to be in the 60-65k range, which might be helped by her performance on Thursday night’s edition of the show.

Reprise’s Fleetwood Mac vet Stevie Nicks, currently on tour with Rod Stewart, comes out with In Your Dreams, her first solo album since 2001’s Trouble in Shangri-La, which should do between 40-45k.
Atlantic R&B crooner Musiq Soulchild is back with his sixth studio album, MusiqInTheMagiq, in the range of 30-35k

Motley Crue’s Nikki Sixx band, Sixx: A.M., is back with the Eleven Seven album, This Is Gonna Hurt, on target for between 25-30k, the same as Epic’s Sade The Ultimate Collection.

So if Hits predicts correctly and based on this info... Here's how the Top 10 should look:

No.1  Adele - 21 (120-150k)
No.2  The Beastie Boys or Now 38 (100-110k)
No.3  Now 38 or The Beastie Boys (100-110k)
No.4  Fleet Foxes (80-90k)
No.5  Jennifer Lopez (60-65k)
No.6  Stevie Nicks (40-45k)
No.7  Musiq Soulchild (30-35k)
No.8  Nikki Sixx Band or Sade (25-30k)
No.9  Sade or Nikki Sixx Band (25-30k)
No10??

This could change slightly but Hits is usually pretty darn close with their numbers...

BUY STEVIE'S IN YOUR DREAMS.... THIS... WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!