Listening to RAL for the first time

[Moz]

This is basically me half reviewing RAL, half rambling.

I'm listening to Rock a Little for the first time in it's entirety. :shocked: IT'S SO EIGHTIES.

Some Become Strangers and The Nightmare completely caught me off guard. The intro to Strangers sounds like some funk song that one would hear while shopping in Sears.

THE NIGHTMARE. Oh my lord. The synths sound like Duran Duran crossed with New Order, but they also sound like they should be in the soundtrack to The Breakfast Club. Or something. Stevie says "drowning" like my mom - drownding. I love that. And then the reggae guy going "this is not the world."

No Spoken Word is average, not incredibly cheesy, but it doesn't give me goosebumps. I love the half-spoken "that disastrous sound" line.

If I Were You (too twinkly), I Sing for the Things and Imperial Hotel all go into the "meh" bin for me. I've heard Talk To Me too many times, but I don't really have anything to say about it. Okay, nevermind. TTM has some awesome coke-y parts. "WASI MAW THAT HARD, IS IT ALL THAT TOUGH? NOW I SAW THROUGH ALL MY CARDS, WELL ISN'T THAT ENOUGH? AND I'M YOUR HEARSE!" (yes, that's what it sounds like to me) and the ever-confusing, warbly "to veil a swelling teaahhh". Brilliant.

Rock a Little (Go Ahead Lily) - oh, the singing. I love it. THIS is what I hear when I think of RAL. Completely worn out vocals.

I Can't Wait is one of my favourite Stevie songs ever. I could talk about this song all day, but I'll leave it at this: I LOVE IT.

Sister Honey is campy love. This song makes me want to drive downtown in a pink convertible with the top down, blasting 'Sistah'.

HAEWAFY - It's yet to grow on me. I prefer BATB. :sorry:

So... what's next? Street Angel? OSOTM? TISL?

[Dodfather]

Other Side Of The Mirror, definitely. You may as well do them in order. By the way, I agree about Has Anyone Ever Written Anything For You, but then again Rock A Little (Go Ahead Lily) took a while to grow on me too.

[Sanne2]

While BD and WH are both "better" albums, I think RAL is her most "fun" album, it took some time to grow on me but now I love it.

[StandbackStevie]

I love the rock a little album it is a fun wild album , it was my first tour of seeing stevie live in concert and also i believe when stevie was recording the Rock A Little Album she was doing a lot of cocaine during the recording of that record too I enjoy all the songs on that record i believe sister honey is another song she wrote about cocaine besides gold dust woman. I am such a retro in music i just love the classic rock of the 60's,70's and 80's anything recorded after that by classic rock artists i connect with them better than some of the new acts. Stevie is my favorite singer and song writer and well rounded artist to me i am probably not her best critic I pretty much love everything she does. I love the The Nightmare, Imperial Hotel, Sister Honey, I can't Wait that was also awesome Live as well If I Were You, No Spoken Word,Talk to me, Has Anyone Ever Written Anything For You definetly one of her great ballads.

[ILoveFM]

This is basically me half reviewing RAL, half rambling.

I'm listening to Rock a Little for the first time in it's entirety. :shocked: IT'S SO EIGHTIES.

Some Become Strangers and The Nightmare completely caught me off guard. The intro to Strangers sounds like some funk song that one would hear while shopping in Sears.

THE NIGHTMARE. Oh my lord. The synths sound like Duran Duran crossed with New Order, but they also sound like they should be in the soundtrack to The Breakfast Club. Or something. Stevie says "drowning" like my mom - drownding. I love that. And then the reggae guy going "this is not the world."

No Spoken Word is average, not incredibly cheesy, but it doesn't give me goosebumps. I love the half-spoken "that disastrous sound" line.

If I Were You (too twinkly), I Sing for the Things and Imperial Hotel all go into the "meh" bin for me. I've heard Talk To Me too many times, but I don't really have anything to say about it. Okay, nevermind. TTM has some awesome coke-y parts. "WASI MAW THAT HARD, IS IT ALL THAT TOUGH? NOW I SAW THROUGH ALL MY CARDS, WELL ISN'T THAT ENOUGH? AND I'M YOUR HEARSE!" (yes, that's what it sounds like to me) and the ever-confusing, warbly "to veil a swelling teaahhh". Brilliant.

Rock a Little (Go Ahead Lily) - oh, the singing. I love it. THIS is what I hear when I think of RAL. Completely worn out vocals.

I Can't Wait is one of my favourite Stevie songs ever. I could talk about this song all day, but I'll leave it at this: I LOVE IT.

Sister Honey is campy love. This song makes me want to drive downtown in a pink convertible with the top down, blasting 'Sistah'.

HAEWAFY - It's yet to grow on me. I prefer BATB. :sorry:

So... what's next? Street Angel? OSOTM? TISL?

Wow, I just got RAL Monday! I'm obsessed with it, I haven't listened to anything else in days.. Once again Stevie has taken over my life!

I love I Can't Wait! My favortie line is ' Well she dances around in a circle; She's got that feelin' now' Ahhhhhh I love that song!

Rock A Little has become my new obsession. I love it. You would think with this title the song would be really rockin' but it's so different then I expected!

Sister Honey has always been a favorite of mine. I love blasting it loud.

I Sing For Things is ok. I like the opening of the song and then it just becomes ok.

Imperial Hotel is really fun! It made me smile as soon as it came on for the first time.

Some Become Strangers is an average song. Not really a favorite of mine. I'm giving it a few listens each day. It's growing on me!

Talk To Me is awesome. I've also heard this song a billion of times, but it had been awhile from the last time til I received RAL that I had heard it. Love the ending of the song were she gets really worked up!

The Nightmare- I love this song! I also love the drowding parts! She's made up her own word hahaha.

If I were you has grown on me. I love it now. I like her voice a lot in this song.

No Spoken Word has to be one of my favorites! I had it uo so loud yesterday on my way to work! My mom just laughed when she saw me dancing to it! I love love love it!

HAEWAFY has always been a favorite of mine. I like BATB too, but I relate to this song much more at this time in my life. It's a good song to cry too haha.

Overall I love it. Great beats and pretty awesome vocals! I can't seem to put it down yet!

[Musicman408]

While BD and WH are both "better" albums, I think RAL is her most "fun" album, it took some time to grow on me but now I love it.

Yeah, I agree- it's one of those "era" albums that you have to appreciate for what it is!

[goldustsongbird]

I Sing For Things is ok. I like the opening of the song and then it just becomes ok.




Don't you hate that? You think it'll be a good song, only for it to pan out into... that. lol
I like the intro because it sounds like a sped-up Sleeping Angel.

[chiliD]

RAL, to me, is a "bi-polar" album. It has Stevie's best and her worst. And, apparently, whoever tracked the album (yes, the vinyl LP), had the foresight to divide it up pretty evenly.

What was side one...once the awesome "I Can't Wait" ends, the rest of that side, again...TO ME, is pure crap...nothing salvageable. Flip to side two. Pure heaven...from beginning to end, she's never done better.

Sure, the album has an eighties sound, but then WHY SHOULDN'T IT?? IT WAS RECORDED IN THE EIGHTIES!!!!

The really sort of eerie thing is that if you mix songs from Lindsey's Go Insane with Stevie's RAL tunes, they sound cohesive...as if they were specifically recorded to blend together.

Then came TOSOTM...I wince everytime someone mentions that one. Poor "Rooms On Fire", the lone tune of any quality on the entire album.

[Black_Moon]

"Rock A Little" was originally my favourite of Stevie's solo albums, and still to this day is my second favourite.

I love the eighties vibe of it - total cheese-fest, but in a fun way, for once it seems Stevie isn't taking herself overly seriously - the mad vocals, the dance approach. It's over-the-top, but that's what makes it good. Sure, there's a couple of songs below par such as the vomit inducing "I Sing for the Things" and "Some Become Strangers" has never rubbed me the right way. But I think if you take all of that and the time it was recorded into account, it's an extremely enjoyable listen.

[michelej1]

The really sort of eerie thing is that if you mix songs from Lindsey's Go Insane with Stevie's RAL tunes, they sound cohesive...as if they were specifically recorded to blend together.


That's an interesting thought. If you've considered this before, did you ever do any sort of tracklist?

I know which ones I like from both of them, but I never thought which of the songs might complement one another. Some Become Strangers / Loving Cup.

I wouldn't use all of the songs. I wouldn't make it a double album. I know I 'd drop D. W. Suite and Bang the Drum from his.

Michele

[jedw]

I spent a (too) large part of my childhood playing with a video game device, the Sega megadrive (I believe the americans call this the Sega "Genesis")

Anyhow onto my point, basically every track on "Rock a little" sounds like this sega system, becasue guess what, I looked this up, the machine uses a yamaha sound chip, which was basically the Yamaha "DX" systhesizer .... used on countless records in the 80's.

So anyways ... "Rock a little" always sounds like sonic the hedgehog to me ... :rolleyes:

[chiliD]

If you've considered this before, did you ever do any sort of tracklist?


Oh, yeah...back then I was a master of "mixed tape"-ness...here's a "Lost FMac album" from around 1984-85 (also adding some of Christine's tunes from her '84 solo album):

side a:
I CAN'T WAIT
SO EXCITED
LOVING CUP
GOT A HOLD ON ME
IF I WERE YOU
GO INSANE
THE SMILE I LIVE FOR


side b:
LOVE WILL SHOW US HOW
SLOW DANCING
NO SPOKEN WORD
WHO'S DREAMING THIS DREAM
D.W. SUITE
HAS ANYONE EVER WRITTEN ANYTHING FOR YOU

[michelej1]

Oh, yeah...back then I was a master of "mixed tape"-ness...here's a "Lost FMac album" from around 1984-85 (also adding some of Christine's tunes from her '84 solo album):



I like it, although I think I might be on some kind of LSD trip. I thought you had The Challenge there, but then it was suddenly Who's Dreaming this Dream.

I would only say that the sequencing on Side B might make me drowsy at the end. But there's no question that they are powerful songs and, even if it's just my imagination, I do often see links in their solo work.

This goes together genre and era-wise, better than our sample meldings of SYW with ITM do.

Michele

[Cornflake Girl]

I wish I had something more interesting to contribute to this thread but I'm still laughing at your album review Moz. :p I think we have a very similar attitude towards this album.

I'd go for OSOTM next or if you'd like a break from 80s Stevie, try TISL. In my opinion, TISL is much more reminiscient of TWH and Belladonna, both lyrically and musically. A lot of people say she shouldn't have let Sheryl Crow near the production, I disagree as a Sheryl fan, but see what you make of it yourself. :D

[Dodfather]

I spent a (too) large part of my childhood playing with a video game device, the Sega megadrive (I believe the americans call this the Sega "Genesis")

Anyhow onto my point, basically every track on "Rock a little" sounds like this sega system, becasue guess what, I looked this up, the machine uses a yamaha sound chip, which was basically the Yamaha "DX" systhesizer .... used on countless records in the 80's.

So anyways ... "Rock a little" always sounds like sonic the hedgehog to me ... :rolleyes:

YESSSS!!! God, I was never off the Mega Drive. I'll never listen to the album in the same way again.

As for my best/worst Rock A Little tarcks... I love Sister Honey, Imperial Hotel, I Can't Wait, Talk To Me, Rock A Little (which took ages to grow on me)... but am less keen on Some Become Strangers (blah...) and I Sing For The Things.

[petep9000]

RAL was no different from any other Stevie album to me the first time I listened to it. I think all of her albums take time to digest and grow to love. I haven't had an end-to-end experience with an album yet that grabbed me completely at first listen, from any artist. 'Fumbling Towards Ecstasy' came close though (except for 'Ice Cream'), as did 'The Kick Inside' (except for maybe 'Kite')

[louielouie2000]

I must say that I think Rock A Little is probably my least favorite Stevie album as a whole. It is just so cliche BAD '80s to the point of caricature. Tango is thoroughly '80s too, but I think it has more redeeming qualities, and is just a FUN record.

However, there are some great songs on RAL though. I put No Spoken Word up there with my very favorite of Stevie's songs. I just love the hard driving sound, her almost angry sounding vocals, and the general dark atmosphere of the song. I would almost put it up next to Sisters Of The Moon in those regards, good song!

I remember the first time I heard the song Rock A Little how surprised I was that I totally dug it. It was not anywhere near as cliche and aweful as the name implied it might be. Whenever I hear this one, I just imagine Stevie singing it completely stoned in a dark, pot smoke filled room :laugh:. I really do love the atmosphere of that song!

I really like I Sing For The Things too. Such a sweet, innocent love song. I even kinda like her distressed vocal too. Stevie was so good in the '70s and '80s at making her vocals evoke her feelings when she wrote her songs (case and point, Storms. Sounds like she sang that one after she just finished a big cry).

I didn't at first, but I like The Nightmare now too. Again, I think it's an atmosphere thing. Kinda a cheesy song, I know.

I think I have just heard I Can't Wait, Talk To Me, and Has Anyone Ever Written too many times for me to really have an opinion on them. I've always been more about lesser known album tracks that are gems. I do like the story and sentiment behind HAEWAFY... I've just heard it too many times to listen to it or care anymore.

Sister Honey is just aweful, plain and simple lol. Sometimes when I'm in a silly and/or drunk mood, I'll listen to it and I'll have a lot of fun haha. But otherwise it's '80s in all the BAD ways. Songs like Some Become Strangers and If I Were You I would almost lump in the same boat. But something about their particular sounds just totally transports me back to my memories of being a kid in the '80s, and when almost all pop music sounded like that. And these are my non-abridged thoughts on RAL :p. Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's bad, but as a whole, it's fun if you can take it with a grain of salt, and you're in the mood for it.

[Black_Moon]

RAL was no different from any other Stevie album to me the first time I listened to it. I think all of her albums take time to digest and grow to love. I haven't had an end-to-end experience with an album yet that grabbed me completely at first listen, from any artist. 'Fumbling Towards Ecstasy' came close though (except for 'Ice Cream'), as did 'The Kick Inside' (except for maybe 'Kite')

You have great musical taste outside of Stevie, I thought I'd say. And I for one love "Kite"! :p

[louielouie2000]

Ok, so The Nightmare just came on my Apple. I forgot what it was about this song I liked so much. I just LOVE the verse:

"Somewhere in her ancient ways, she walks through the night. And she tries to get through the day. Some will never know nor share any kind of dream."

I know a lot of this song is about her profound pain from the end of a relationship. But I also think it's about how out of place she feels in the modern world, and with that I can certainly relate. I think that's what has always drawn me to Stevie and her music... it's escapism to a more romantic, mystical world. I'm kinda like Stevie... I think things like iphones, twitter, and other contraptions are draining the beauty out of life, and making people a slave to electronics versus actually interacting with the real world and building true relationships with people. I definitely appreciate the small, silly little beautiful things in life... things that most people won't ever notice because they're obsessed with updating their facebook, myspace, twitter, linkedin, friendspace, and text messages. And I think that's just as much what the above verse is about. There is so much beauty people won't ever see, because they're too distracted by all this 'progress' to notice it.

[HejiraNYC]

Thanks Moz for your review- it's interesting to read/hear it through a new set of ears!

I've personally come full circle with this album- I bought it when it first came out and damn nearly wore out the grooves; I loved, loved, loved it. But it didn't take long for me to absolutely hate it because of its dated sound- back when anything resembling the 80's was just tacky. But now I love it again; I can appreciate it as a snapshot in time of a very interesting time in music, as well as my own stormy adolescence. Every time I listen to it, I'm transported back to my basement bedroom lying in my bed wearing those ginormous Koss headphones with the coiled cord hooked up to the Panasonic stereo.

Does anyone remember the Saturday morning cartoon Kidd Video, about the fictional rock band transported into a really trippy cartoon world? I swear I vaguely remember them doing a cover of "Some Become Strangers," which was also covered by a male singer for some 80's movie about a diver. And I also vaguely remember that Alvin and the Chipmunks covered "Talk to Me," which, ironically sounded not too dissimilar to Stevie singing it herself. :lol:

[LittleCharmer]

I spent a (too) large part of my childhood playing with a video game device, the Sega megadrive (I believe the americans call this the Sega "Genesis")

Anyhow onto my point, basically every track on "Rock a little" sounds like this sega system, becasue guess what, I looked this up, the machine uses a yamaha sound chip, which was basically the Yamaha "DX" systhesizer .... used on countless records in the 80's.

So anyways ... "Rock a little" always sounds like sonic the hedgehog to me ... :rolleyes:

Now you've mentioned that I'll never be able to forget it.. hahaha

[cbBen]

So... what's next? Street Angel? OSOTM? TISL?

Here's my order:

Buckingham Nicks
Bella Donna
Other Side Of The Mirror
Trouble In Shangra-La
Street Angel
The Wild Heart
Rock A Little

[cbBen]

Here's my order:

Buckingham Nicks
Bella Donna
Other Side Of The Mirror
Trouble In Shangra-La
Street Angel
The Wild Heart
Rock A Little


I'm listening to Street Angel and must say it is really great. I do not understand the dissention on this album. I hope that Stevie's self-proclaimed view of the album--which seems to be more about the period in her life and not entirely just about the album itself--isn't interfering with our collective ability to see the greatness in it. Who knows what Stevie's view of the album is nowadays, and who cares really? My ears like it and that's all that counts.

So my new order: B. Nicks, B. Donna, Other Side Of The Mirror, S. Angel, Shangra-La, W. Heart, Rock A Little.