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.
Last edited by Dex; 11-08-2014 at 10:48 AM..
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