Quote:
Originally Posted by Dex
I was hoping this album would showcase Stevie's songwriting at its most mature. But the sheer clunkiness of I Don't Care and Hard Advice (much as I do enjoy that one) squelched that dream for me. I now view it as a very competent and pleasant solo album with a few skippers. Pretty much par for the course from solo-Stevie. It fits right in with everything else, for me. I don't really consider the retrospective angle of it much at all.
The one thing I do think this album lacks that IYD had in spades is songs with an emotional build to them. I'm not sure how to describe what I mean in a way that makes sense, but I feel like most of the songs on 24k simply come in, do their thing, and leave. There's no build or climax to most of these pieces, and as such I never got that lump-in-the-throat sensation that I do upon listening to a lot of her best work. (Almost) Everything is very pleasant sounding, I just wish more of it had a bit of oomph to it in that way.
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So glad you posted this, Dex. I was just discussing this with someone the other day. There is no story arc in most of these songs. Stevie would hate that that sounds like something Lindsey would say in his grammar lessons, but it's true. A story should take you somewhere.. it should end, emotionally (lyrics, not just music swelling up), in a different place than where it started.
Silver Springs is the text book example of this. The singer starts out remembering all the beautiful things she had hoped for the relationship in the beginning, and then, bam, "and don't say that she's pretty…." etc… and you go whoa, this isn't gonna be a happy story after all. The arrangement supports that emotional shift by going from quieter and softer to a fuller band arrangement. But it's hurt, sad, you broke my heart with this other woman, then there's the guitar solo, and then she comes back in with angry words now.. like she had time to think about it during that guitar solo and now she's MAD. And it's like, I'm not gonna sit here and cry over you, I'm gonna get even-- "I'll follow you down til the sound of my voice will haunt you…' etc.
So by the end of the song she's taken you on a journey from shocked, devastated, to sad, to mad.
When you write a song and the words never change, just repeat and repeat and repeat, by the end you're like, yeah I know we've already been here.. twice.
Or you're just so confused because none of the lyrics really hang together that you don't know where you are. (Mabel Normand-- which I actually enjoy listening to because of the music, not really the lyrics).
Anyway, I'm glad to hear someone else say they feel the way. Sometimes it's challenging to post something a little critical when everyone else thinks it's perfection.
