Trouble In Shangri-La vs. In Your Dreams

[TheWILDheart]

and another one folks!

Trouble In Shangri La vs. In Your Dreams. What do we think?

For me, TISL is still perfection on record. There are NO bad songs on it (I love "That Made Me Stronger" before anyone says anything :P). I've always considered TISL to be my musical soul. I also prefer the cleaner sounding production and different layers. Even though IYD is slightly more classic Stevie-esque, I will always regard TISL as a masterpiece by any standards

Don't get me wrong through, I do love IYD :D

[bluefox4000]

IYD for me. Her best piece of word since the first half of WH, lol. Some classics here...Midnight, Italian Summer, New Orleans, For What it's Worth, Wide Sargasso Sea. TISL Has a great beginning and End. Weighed down by a blah Middle. Both suffer though from the "Stevie curse". Both being a bit bloated. both could use trimming.

That said IYD is a stellar album she should be proud of.

Mick

[markolas]

IYD by miles and miles. I agree that TISL comes apart in the middle, and picks back up toward the end. IYD is not without a couple of minor missteps, but it's one of her 3 best albums, for me.

[Blueletter18]

Not a big fan of either, but I can't STAND the production on TISL. Ruins Sorcerer for me completely, because the demo is so much better. Even with her voice during TISL, I believe they could have made that song into a masterpiece. There was so much potential that was wasted on this album. Yeah, it's alright, and probably more enjoyable if you never heart the demos. In Your Dreams is fun, and at least she took some risks vocally and musically on that album and moved in a different direction.

[WildHearted]

I love IYD as a whole more than TISL, but the songs I love on TISL I love to a stronger degree than those on IYD, So I'm going with TISL.

[Artemis]

I love them both, so to decide which is better, I've done a track by track comparison:


Trouble In Shangri-La vs Secret Love
Candlebright vs For What It's Worth
Sorcerer vs In Your Dreams
Planets Of The Universe vs Wide Sargasso Sea
Every Day vs New Orleans (Although I REALLY love Every Day...)
Too Far From Texas vs Moonlight (A Vampire's Dream)
That Made Me Stronger vs Annabel Lee
It's Only Love vs Soldier's Angel
Love Changes vs Everybody Loves You
I Miss You vs Ghosts Are Gone
Bombay Sapphires vs You May Be The One (I had to flip a coin here)
Fall From Grace Vs Italian Summer
Love Is vs Cheaper Than Free

TISL - 5
IYD - 8

In Your Dreams wins, TISL really suffers from the middle part of the album being sorta crappy, while IYD only really peters out towards the end.

[bluecalmsea]

I said this in the "unpopular opinions" thread~ I do not like IYD. Not at all. There is not even one song that I care to listen to. I'm really bummed out about it too, because I wanted so hard to love/ connect with the album, but there is just nothing that draws me in, even a little, after several times of listening to it :distress:

TISL has many songs that I like though. Not my favorite album, but I enjoy parts of it, where IYD offers me nothing.

[On Ice]

Trouble in Shangri La had more peaks and valleys, whereas In Your Dreams was a more consistent and better performed album. I really liked how Planets of the Universe turned out and was glad to hear the high parts in Sorcerer (had my fingers crossed prior to the release that these would be in the song). In Your Dreams had more passion behind the vocals which made it sound better, not sure if there was any tweaking (most likely so) but whatever, it works.

[mitzo]

TISL wins for me - it has several classically marvellous Stevie things on it, among some wreckage. IYD is consistently, well, nice. It has no standout songs for me. Both albums are good, tho.

[KarmaContestant]

Both albums have what are for me, some Stevie classics that make it hard to pick one over the other. It's a hard choice. I'll have to think about it a little while before voting.

[mylittledemon]

I am more connected to Shangri-La. I think maybe Stevie's voice is stronger on IYD though.

[Jondalar]

Definitely In Your Dreams. TISL was an extremely uneven album and the quality of songs wasn't near as good.

[Macfanforever]

IYD is my pick but I do like Trouble too.

[GoldDustBoy]

Love them both! :) I remember when TISL came out, and I was still a teen. I played it all the time, day and night, which eventually drove my folks insane. :blob2: Both have some great songs, and some filler material, but the overall quality of IYD is higher. I fairly like, Sheryl Crow, and I like what she did with Stevies songs on TISL, but still I feel like something's missing. There is a sort of hollowness in the songs she produced. Then there are some really terrible choices like TMMS, Every Day (which doesn't suit Stevie's vocals AT ALL), Love Changes... IYD sounds fresh, smooth and unforced. I played GAG, AL, WSS, and YMBTO a million times since the album came out, and I am still not tired of them.

[PolishStevieFan]

Definately "In Your Dreams". After two years this is still my favourite Stevie's album ever!!! "New Orleans", "For What It's Worth", title track, "Annabell Lee", "Secret Love" and most importantly "Wild Sargasso Sea" are magnificent!

[bluefox4000]

I just want to say one thing I forgot to about TISL I was 16 when it came out. This was the album that Stevie started to win me back with. After the horrible 1 2 3 blow of RAL, OSOTM and SA (Although I've softened on SA) I was completely thrown out of Stevieland, lol. When I heard TISL. I said, "OK Stevie getting there." If not for the middle it would be up to par. However IYD won me completely.:nod:

Mick

[starshine]

Well, I picked TISL ...its not like its my favorite its OK but I really haven't listend to IYD much (really once) I mean its not bad just didn't make me want to really listen to it much again though--I can handle some songs on 'Dreams' but really 'Lady from the Mountain' should've stayed that don't care about the vampires' song thing. Plus Stevie's voice seems kinda monotoned somewhat. I will try to listen to it again just haven't yet. Really nothing compares to the older things to me not that I don't like it that she tried something new etc. IMO anyway :shrug:

[louielouie2000]

I listened to In Your Dreams for the first time in a year today. I'd forgotten what a wonderful album it is. As an entire work, it's far better than most, if not all, of Stevie's solo albums. On the other hand, the more than time goes on, the more flawed I find Trouble In Shangri La to be. There are several different production styles on the album which definitely clash; I think the tracking is very poor; and I feel Stevie's vocal performances on the whole are pretty uninspired. However, Trouble In Shangri La does have some better individual songs than In Your Dreams does. Love Is contains some of Stevie's most poignant songwriting since her Tusk days. Still, In Your Dreams is vastly superior in every other way. After listening to it again today, it might even topple Bella Donna as my favorite Stevie solo album. :)

[KarmaContestant]

I ended up choosing TISL.

In Your dreams is a better whole album for the casual listener, but TISL has Planets and Candlebright and Sorcerer and Fall From Grace and Bombay Sapphires and the title song - I guess what I'm getting at is that TISL has these classic songs, these sterotypes of Stevieism, these tracks that really scream "this is what Stevie is all about".

[SpyNote]

I'd say they're about even. I like and dislike about the same number of songs on each album.

TISL

Pros
- Lots of old demos finally recorded
- First four songs are perfection

Cons
- Drum machines. Awful invention. Makes the songs sound incomplete and amateurish.
- Some very generic and forgettable songs: Every Day, I Miss You, Love Changes

IYD

Pros
- Her most melodic album since Bella Donna
- No drum machines, at least their use is not glaringly obvious on this record
- Good cohesive mix of songs

Cons
- Lots of lyrical clunkers: Soldier's Angel (sorry, Stevie!), You May Be The One (contradictory lyrics are the worst), Ghosts Are Gone, Cheaper Than Free. Repetitive, cliched, and bland.

Despite all this, I bought at least 10 copies of TISL and 5 copies of IYD. :D

[JohnL]

This one is really difficult. I love both albums. To me, I guess it has to be In Your Dreams for the win. I love TISL (the title song)and Planets and Love Is...the rest of TISL has kind of fallen off my radar. I dont really crave to hear it.

In Your Dreams has some spectacular songs on it. I LOVE For What Its Worth, Wide Sargasso Sea, New Orleans, You May Be the One, Secret Love, and Italian Summer. The rest of the songs are not as great but no clunkers either. The one negative point on IYD for me is Moonlight. I know people will hate that I say that but I dont get all the love for that song. Bores me....

[DestinyRules]

Trouble In Shangri-La vs Secret Love
Candlebright vs For What It's Worth
Sorcerer vs In Your Dreams
Planets Of The Universe vs Wide Sargasso Sea
Every Day vs New Orleans
Too Far From Texas vs Moonlight (A Vampire's Dream)
That Made Me Stronger vs Annabel Lee
It's Only Love vs Soldier's Angel
Love Changes vs Everybody Loves You
I Miss You vs Ghosts Are Gone
Bombay Sapphires vs You May Be The One
Fall From Grace Vs Italian Summer
Love Is vs Cheaper Than Free

Granted, I like more TISL songs than I do IYD songs, but the songs I like on IYD are generally more passionately felt ("Fall From Grace" and "It's Only Love" being noticeable exceptions).

[FierySequences]

[b]
Granted, I like more TISL songs than I do IYD songs, but the songs I like on IYD are generally more passionately felt ("Fall From Grace" and "It's Only Love" being noticeable exceptions).

Ooh I love your idea so much, I decided to copy it. This is a tough decision and I think I orginally voted TISL w/o posting.

My take:

Trouble In Shangri-La vs Secret Love
Candlebright vs For What It's Worth
Sorcerer vs In Your Dreams
Planets Of The Universe vs Wide Sargasso Sea
Every Day vs New Orleans
Too Far From Texas vs Moonlight (A Vampire's Dream)
That Made Me Stronger vs Annabel Lee
It's Only Love vs Soldier's Angel
Love Changes vs Everybody Loves You
I Miss You vs Ghosts Are Gone
Bombay Sapphires vs You May Be The One
Fall From Grace Vs Italian Summer
Love Is vs Cheaper Than Free

So, I guess I really do love TISL more than IYD. Her latest was nice and of course a welcomed addition to my collection. However the hype that surrounded IYD as being her return-to-form of a story album (like BD and TWH) has me in a questioning state of mind :shrug:

I feel that TISL was more on par with the storyline concept-type album.