Bella Donna & Wild Heart= End of Story!
 

Bella Donna & Wild Heart are Stevie and Jimmy Iovine's masterpieces. Everything after that in her solo career is rubbish. Of course she had some good songs after these two albums but they do not compare or come close to anything on BD & WH. Jimmy Iovine took those songs and turned them into magic. He is her best producer ever. Nothing beats her voice on BD & WH. So pure that it made my heart melt. I hate to be harsh but I wish she never slept with him and started a relationship with him maybe then we would have more albums produced by him and albums worth listening to. The way Jimmy blended everything together was true art. He works with tons of artist and does magnificent things with their work. I have been a fan of Stevie for a long time. I was there when BD was released! I was so excited to listen to it. When I put it on I was just in awe. Same with Wild Heart. Then came Rock A Little came.. not bad but starting to go downhill. Terrible music, terrible lyrics, terrible voice. I don't even want to talk about The Otherside Of the Mirror or Street Angel :eek:

I guess it all comes down to taste... because give me Street Angel any day over Wild Heart. What an overly sappy monument to Stevie's bloated ego. Street Angel by comparison is a Godsend. It's straight forward rock and roll.

I like Wild Heart a lot, but Street Angel is a great album. I think what really stands out is the timelessness of the instrumentation, with no period-fads or dated musical trends.

Really? That really shocks me. In all honesty what about Wild Heart don't you like?? What about Street Angel is better?

Out of the 10 songs on Wild Heart there is only one song that is okay and that is I Will Run To You. The rest is a masterpiece. I love I Will Run To You but that was written by Tom Petty so that is just a waste of a song.

Out of the 13 songs on Street Angel there is only one good song Blue Denim and two okay songs Rose Garden and Kick It.

The reason I don't think Rose Garden is a good song is for the whole corniness of it and this part just is bad.. Well, I've got all these things...All these things but a small gold band...On my finger...on my left hand Yuck.

As for Kick It this whole verse is bad imo Well I'm waited for in Egypt...It's just something I must do..Yes I can see you're waited for...all over you..All day and all night...all over the world..
It's your world

Love Is Like A River can be a guilty pleasure at times but that is another song that is just too much for me. Good music, some embarrassing lyrics.

YES!! I knew there had to be another Ledgie who felt that way! :blob2: I just feel all of Stevie's fans automatically dismiss the album because Stevie badmouths it because it wasn't a hot seller. The reasons you mentioned are exactly why I love the album. The production style is clean, sharply creased, and no-nonsense. Stevie isn't hiding behind a lot of whizbangery the way she often had on her solo works. It's good, straight forward rock and roll... and I *LOVE* it :nod:.

I will say that I hear a lot of criticism over Stevie's voice on Street Angel but I must say I don' t think her voice is bad.. It's just the writing, and the bad song choices on her part.

She needs to get Jimmy back and get him to produce good music like BD & WH. Get her writing back in order and rock it!!! I so miss the Stevie I fell in love with!

I know a lot of people say that if she recorded some of the demo's like China Doll, Julia, etc it would be ruined with her voice today and I have to disagree. Those songs are where the emotion and lyrics are at! We need those song done!!


To be brave save the stranger

Stevie's vocals on Street Angel are very good. As far as writing, there are a couple songs I'd consider subpar, but then that happens with almost every one of her albums, minus Bella Donna. I don't care for Unconditional Love, although the earlier demo versions aren't so bad...but the fnal product is a little too glossy (same with Thousand Days). But...really, other than that I quite like the writing - epecially the old tracks that were left over from Rock A Little.

I do wish Love Is Like A River had a certain something, not sure what it is that's missing exactly, but it never sounds complete. Still, it's a favorite of mine.

In the last year or so I've started to consider Wild Heart to be her best album but I go back and forth between that, BD, and TISL. She was definitely the hottest she's ever been during that time. That being said I will never forgive Jimmy Iovine for not including All the Beautiful Worlds on TWH album instead of Gate and Garden. And apparently it was for personal reasons between he and Stevie. Biggest mistake EVER and I strongly resent him for it. That would have made the album a masterpiece.

I prefer Rock A Little over Wild Heart :shrug:

Agreed - I don't know why Stevie couldn't just release tracks like that as b-sides, instead of the typical album tracks that she used more often than not.

I think RAL is probably my favorite album to listen to but coming from a singer/song-writer point of view I would say TWH wins over RAL.

Gate and Garden disagrees with that statement. :laugh:

Also, I consider TISL and RAL to be totally amazing Stevie albums, TISL is easily on par with BD and WH, at least for me; different strokes for different folks.

I like a few songs on OSOTM and SA; namely, Rooms on Fire, Ghosts, Long Way To Go, Whole Lotta Trouble, Blue Denim, Greta, Kick it and Listen To The Rain. The rest... no. Garbage.

RAL is a very love/hate album. I didn't like it (other than Talk to Me and No Spoken Word) for the longest time, but, lately, I've discovered a new found love for it. The crazy vocals, the unescapable eighties vibe of the whole thing! :laugh:

Overall, I think Wild Heart is her best solo album to date, with Bella Donna and TISL a close second, but, I don't believe the rest of her stuff is necessarily worthless; there are some brilliant gems hidden amongst the garbage.

I love you my Karma Cousin! :xoxo: I agree with all of this except the garbage part.

I don'd think you can beat her voice taking flight all over Wild Heart. Michele

You are my new favourite person.

Wild Heart is interesting in that it generates pretty strongly divided opinions. I remember my older sister, who was 27 at the time and a fairly strong Stevie fan, buying it upon release and really hating it...too many draggy, mystical songs for her taste. And of course there was that scathing Rolling Stone review by Chris Connelly. While I thought the RS review was unfairly harsh, I could see some of his points.

I like WH for the most part, but I think it could have been much better. I feel it's a mix of a handful of really strong tracks ("Stand Back", "If Anyone Falls", "Wild Heart", "Enchanted") with some fairly pedestrian songs and one pretentious misfire ("Beauty And The Beast" - I know, shoot me, but I just never found this to be the masterpiece that Stevie apparently believes it is). I always considered "Nightbird" to be a near-miss...it has a lovely chorus and some interesting lyrics, but something about the arrangement never quite gelled, and it was my first WTF reaction to a vocal of hers during the first verse.

Essentially, too much of WH is for die-hard Stevie fans only and doesn't connect with casual fans the way the BD songs did. I think if she had swapped some of the lesser cuts ("Gate & Garden", "I Will Run To You", "Sable On Blonde") with stronger material, she would have had sales approaching the Bella Donna mark since she was still a pretty hot commodity at that time.

When I fell in love with Fleetwood Mac & Stevie Nicks' music around the time of The Dance release (I was about 15), the only group I was previously enthralled with was ABBA (from the time I was 12)... known for their very slick production and carefully structured songs. So when I came to listen to Stevie's solo albums, her songwriting style intrigued me... where Benny & Björn's compositions had lyrics thrown together to suit the music; Stevie's music was molded to fit her lyrics/poetry.

I think sometimes you get really interesting/cool results, such as "Battle Of The Dragon", where you have two different verses with the same chord structure, but different melodies. Other times, there almost sounds to me to be a struggle to get the lyrics to find their place within the structure of the song... one example that comes to mind is the demo of "Juliet" with what later became the "Book of Miracles" backing track... Stevie struggles to find places for some of the words within the structure of that song. It later was brilliantly and also subtly reworked for OSOTM, IMO... and the lyrics work there.

In the case of "Love Like A River", which is actually a favorite track on Street Angel for me, I think it is a little more like the latter (particularly in the bridge of the song). There does seem to be some unresolved elements to the melodies and structure of the song... but in a strange way, I think this is what makes you want to hear the song over and over... there is a part of you that keeps waiting for/seeking that resolution (I should speak for myself really..lol). I know there are other solo songs of hers that leave me with the same impression... they may have failed to impress me upon first listen many years ago, but with time I find I keep coming back and wanting more!

Hope that all makes sense to someone else! :lol:

I agree about Jimmy being her best producer. But I do love RAL, with the exception of ISFTT.
I do not agree about SA being pure rock. Songs like Unconditional Love & MLWCYM are a far cry, IMO. But then again, much as I love Bella Donna, I always roll my eyes when Jimmy and others say their plans on that one were to market her as a straight-out rocker. Edge is really the only song that rocks out on that one.
I, too, would prefer ATBW on TWH, but also Garbo. Sorry, I've never thought that B&TB belonged on the album.

I do agree that Stevie's voice is better on BD & TWH, but if I'm driving around, RAL is the one I'll play, and not just for the upbeat production - also for the vocals.

- Jake

I think every Stevie album has their high and low points.

Bella Donna - Stevie's big masterpiece! I think everything is great on this album, but it's not my favorite.

Wild Heart - "I Will Run To You" just makes me sick to my stomach. Everything else is magic!

Rock A Little - The 'Hot Mess' record. It's fun though.

The Other Side of the Mirror - Some good and bad. Some songs are dull and other songs blossom.

Street Angel - Stevie's voice was amazing!

Trouble in Shangri-La - Overall, a pretty solid record.

SDMHA and Edge both are 100 percent straight ahead rockers. And considering they were the songs on the radio, it sort of makes sense. Especially considering her big songs in Fleetwood Mac were Sara, Dreams, Gold Dust Woman, Landslide and Rhiannon (which unless you heard it live was not 100 percent rocking.

David, is that you?

Seriously though, I do agree that there was a shift for Stevie following The Wild Heart, but we've pretty much beaten that topic to death in other threads. I happen to think that Stevie's music has endured (and even gone beyond the earlier stuff from time to time) but the stage presence and performances have never been the same (for me) following the RAL days.

Back in my day when I first came to the Ledge (1997), Street Angel was pretty much agreed to be the worst Stevie album ever, her vocals awful, production was crap and her tour, weight and voice on it at their worst. What happened that it is now so appreciated?

Bella Donna is perfection, and I've always thought so. I didn't like The Wild Heart much for a long time, but it's grown on me over the last few years. I Will Run to You and Nothing Ever Changes are the songs that mar the album as a whole for me. They should've been replaced by Garbo & ATBW or Violet & Blue.

BD & RAL are the only albums where I genuinely like (at least) every song. I can listen to both of them all the way through and not be compelled to skip tracks.

Street Angel is like RAL's poor stepchild, to me. Several scrapped RAL tracks wound up on it (Love Is Like a River, Greta, Rose Garden, Destiny); and MLWCYM and Unconditional Love are the worst pieces of crap Stevie has ever recorded. Blue Denim is a good song, but very dated by 1994 standards. Love Street Angel the song, but prefer the Enchanted mix over the album version.

I agree with this post for the most part. I think BD and WH are her only good albums. However, even WH had its problems. The songs didn't flow that well together. The production is her most dated. The album could of been a little better. I have often thought that Gypsy belongs on this album, although it was originally tended for BD. The Tom Petty duet is weak. Nothing compared Stop Dragging My Heart around. I would of much preferred All The Beuatiful Worlds. Still, WH has a lot of the good stuff—Beauty and the Beast, Stand Back, Nightbird, If Anyone Falls... The title track is epic but it's also odd. Gold and Braid, All the Beautiful Worlds, Sleeping Angel also belong on this album..

Street Angel was a bore. She kicked the best song Inspiration off the album because she didn't write it. Her vocal on Docklands reaked!!!!! TOSTM was a complete embarrassment. And Rock A Little was one of those albums that was split down the middle between bad and good songs. It was also overproduced.

I loved Street Angel from the first time I listened to it. There has always been a mob mentality on the Ledge against the album, though. My thoughts are as follows: all Stevie albums have stinkers on them. Street Angel happens to have the worst stinkers of any Stevie album, though. Perhaps that's why so many dislike it. However, I think when Street Angel is good, it really sparkles. Blue Denim, Love Is Like A River, Kick It, Listen To The Rain... these are all great ROCKING tracks! I think the title track is beautiful and haunting. Greta is so quirky and fun. Jane, Destiny, and Maybe Love are all turds, though. Really, really stinky ones. But they don't detract from my love of the album. Regarding Stevie's performances from this tour, all I have to say is youtube them. Stevie was ON FIRE for the tour. I don't know if she was overcompensating for her weight and the album she wasn't pleased with, or if she was just fiery because the effects of Klonopin had finally worn off, but I think Stevie was quite the performer on the Street Angel tour. She's been a zombie onstage ever since.

Regarding what I don't like about Wild Heart? Where do I begin? It's an overly sappy piece of crap. It reeks of bloated ego. I detest her overly goat like vocals on the album. There really isn't much of a rock presence on this album. I dislike like most of the lyrics. For instance:

There is gate, it can be guarded. It is not heaven, but it has a garden.

I mean seriously, WTF? :lol: I have to just click "next" when she starts screaming about enchanted children on the title track. It's embarrassing to listen to. Nightbird is simply awful. Beauty and the Beast is terrible. I just can't stand the sappiness of the album, it's just an overtly reeking show of bloated ego. Sorry, guys... but Wild Heart is just not for me.

I enjoy Bella Donna now. I didn't appreciate it is much when I was younger. "Outside the Rain" is likely my favorite solo song. Still, songs like "The Highwayman" and "After the Glitter Fades" made me not listen to it as much as I would have.

The Wild Heart is more consistent to me. The songs fit together well. Strangely, my least fave song on the album is "Stand Back"!

Rock a Little was my favorite when I was younger. It seemed very raw and emotional. I never cared for 'The Nightmare", though.

I liked TOSOTM more in the past. Nowadays, it is too long and drawn out. "Rooms On Fire", "Long Way To Go", and "Ghosts" are songs I still listen to. I have to be in certain moods to enjoy the rest.

I like Street Angel. I listen to it pretty often. Just like the other albums, it has its good parts and bad. A lot of people like LILAR and "Listen to the Rain". To me, they (along with "Jane") are the weakest points of the album.

TISL is my favorite at this point. I am hoping that IYD will be just as good!!

Blasphemy. :shocked:

I remember when Street Angel came out, I was so excited. I remember buying it and bringing it home to listen and being completely disappointed and sad. Even after forced listening (out of loyalty) I couldn't connect with this album.

I rediscovered Stevie through street angel. I think Maybe Love was a pop gem. It amazes me how people see things so differently.

I just have to say, I disagree with everyone. All of Stevie's albums have their ups and downs. None of them suck and none of them are perfect. Street Angel has some peeled back production and some fiery vocals on some rocking songs such as Blue Denim and Love Is Like A River and the extremely loved Bella Donna was a little too country at parts. To say that all of Stevie's albums after The Wild Heart sucked is absurd. If that is the case, then why stay a fan 28 years later? My moods fluctuate, and some days I'm very Street Angel and other times I want to Rock A Little. At the end of the day, I'd prefer any Stevie album over most any other albums out there. But perhaps that is just me.

Street Angel would be my least favorite album if I had to pick one but it's not all that bad. Wait, when compared to her previous albums it is that bad lol! But by itself it's not that awful. The only song I absolutely love is the title track. I actually really like Docklands too but it's so not Stevie and the lyrics kill it. Good little tune though. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the demo of Unconditional Love but the album version doesn't compare. Listen to the Rain and Blue Denim aren't bad. Kick it is just fair and I hate what she did with LILAR compared to the RAL version. Jane and Just Like a Woman speak for themselves :distress:.

More importantly my problem with SA is that it represents such an awful time in Stevie's life, at least during the recording of the album/pre-tour. The album screams Klonopin and I know from experience just how awful those benzos can be and how much they can steal your soul. So when I hear these songs I tend to get quite sad for Stevie not to mention all the sh*t she got about the weight gane.

Unlike most, I found it hard to appreciate Stevie's solo work on BD and WH with a few exceptions. BD is really marred by songs that sound dull and amateurish IMO due to muddy, irritating production - a lot of it sounds she is mumbling and hollering through a blanket in a windstorm. WH is better, but it is only Nightbird, Stand back, and BATB that do it for me - they have a quality that is lacking on the rest. I was intrigued and hooked by Stevie and her FM songs and found her solo work to be somehow cheaper and sloppier in overall quality, much of the mytique and allure was drowned under dull instrumentation/arrangement and puzzling song choices. In all her solo albums I have found a few great tracks but most of it I can only listen to when I am in a certain space. I have always wished she's stop trying to "rock" and do more compelling ballads, which is where she shines, I think. FM stuff like Storms, GDW, Gypsy, even 7 Wonders, is unique and haunting, some (not all eg. EO17) of her solo midtempo and rocker work is borderline.

Well said John, I love this. It's so true, they all have their ups and downs but in my mind TWH has the least amount of downs (can we say Gate and Garden). I would also prefer any Stevie album over most music out there.

Regarding I Will Run to You, I also did not like this song up until about a year ago where I decided to give it a couple more listens and my head was spinning because I discovered it's greatness. For all those who despise it, please give it another chance for me. It's a song for tormented lovers and we can all relate to that. Just the music by itself is brilliant sounding and her vocal is chilling.

Bella Donna is perfect. The atmosphere, the quality of the songs, the flow—it's all there. It's almost her greatest hits. I think people are putting this album down to try and uplift her later works. Notta. This album is a Diamond and they are the hardest things to crack. Bella Donna is why I am still a fan of her solo work. It made her solo career.

Artistically, the album is near perfect. I however, don't like the country-sounding songs particularly so that kills it for me in terms of being my favorite.

Well my favorite album is Street Angel too as a whole. For me the easiest way too explain why is b/c Stevie's voice is more prominent and isn't pushed back by the instrumentation. My belief too is that Lindsey has ruined some of FM's songs by using heavy instrumentation to the front and pushing the vocals back as well.

She has recorded a lot of her old songs:

Planets of the Universe
If You Ever Did Believe
Candlebright
Secret Love
Smile at You
Goodbye Baby
Lady from the Mountains
Sorcerer -- twice
Running Through the Garden

I can appreciate the best tracks of 'Street Angel' and don't consider it the nadir of her recording career at all. It has a good handful of really good songs- I don't think that TISL was such a huge jump in quality as it is credited to be either- TISL has, again, a good handful of songs that work well. But it's not like Street Angel is crud and TISL is brilliance.
It's an old trick many performers have used, to trash a previous work that didn't sell up to expectations to make it sound like the new cd is a must have, and that definitely was a factor. However, the title song 'Wild Heart'- I think many SN fans feel that the final 2 minutes of that vocal performance is perhaps her best singing ever recorded on a solo cd- I haven't ever heard anyone trash the vocal on 'Wild Heart' so feverishly before- but to each their own. If you skip to the next track when she gets to the 'children hopelessly enchanted' segment you miss the orgasmic climax of that vocal- start to finish, I love it. Most fans do. Tom Petty said it was 'epic'. But people hear things differently. I do agree about 'G&G' though.
Oh, can't even remember- is it in the portion above- but SN has given good performances since the SA tour. The 'Enchanted' tour was SN in excellent form- and anyone who missed the mini-tour that was 'Two Voices' missed seeing the best vocal performances, in my opinion, since the 'Wild Heart' tour. Stevie on 'Hotel California' was beyond expectations, and it was the loudest ovation I'd heard her receive since The US Festival in 1983. She was sublime on 'New York Minute' vocally, too, and had fun with 'So You Wanna Be A Rock And Roll Star' w Henley as an encore. 'Two Voices' was a fully energized, recharged SN in absolute peak vocal form. I humbly add 'in my opinion'- which is never a bad idea, particularly when trashing entire tours, some of which you didn't even see, baby! A maturity in being a little humbler about your opinions which are no more valid than anyone elses would definitely make you a better writer and definitely less offensive as a moderator- I've never seen a moderator be so arrogant as you, Louie, but good luck, ye who knows everything. Of course you have the right to a differing opinion, but the ego, feh. Downhill it's going, here. There, Jannie, Michele, and to whomever concerned, someone did what any of you should have done- told Louie to stop being offensive. A confrontational moderator is not going to work here, at all. DUMB decision. There I said it, publically, and I am so glad that I did. Everyone is free to disagree with me, ban me, tell my mother, or just have a different opinion- which is something that never even occurs to little, pathetic louie in his ridiculously egomaniacal posts which I simply won't tolerate from a moderator. I no longer respect The Ledge or want it in my life. Louie, you are an ass-wipe. You always have been!
Will never be back, I swear. I hope those it makes happy are pleased. It's so past time I got the hell out of here!
so gbye, and best wishes, even to Louie, who simply has too much to learn for me to stick around. You write like a little boy made editor of a junior high newspaper. That is the truth for The Ledge to remedy.
To any friends, and I had some, I will miss you.
Though it won't matter to her, I know she loves Louie and I'm glad she does, I want to say that I was unkind to Danielle and now that I'm leaving, I'm sorry that I was. Being unkind is something I never came to The Ledge to be, and I take responsibility for it.
I most will miss Jannie and Hejira and wish them both love and everything that is 'in your dreams', both of you. I wish I could have known you both better.
Viv, stop bugging people for their phone numbers, you have too many friends already. I'll miss ya! But I still won't give you my phone number!
Meowi, I never liked you.
LOL.
But Meowi, I wish you a wonderful life, and hey- you may be a hero now, you and Louie are a big reason why I started hating it here. But, hate is something I have shame about and need to eliminate from my life.
In fact, I send everyone here parting wishes of love, success, and happiness. It was never my intent to become unkind, and it happened more than I wish it had.
This is for real. My mind will not be changed.
Love the new cd everyone, and have fun! That's the whole point of being here, after all.

DONE.

John, you took the words right out of my mouth! I think most everyone here would agree with you on the bold highlighted areas. I know I do.

I hated Street Angel when I first heard it. Now I have to say it's grown on me. Still not my favorite, but I love tracks like Greta, Blue Denim, LILAR, etc. It's all about the mood I'm in, like you said.

Louie, I love ya more than my luggage, but I guess we have to agree to disagree. The Wild Heart is my favorite Stevie record. Are there songs that are pretentious? Yes. Do I still love them? Yes INDEED! ;)

Also, am I the ONLY PERSON on this board who ADORES "Gate & Garden"? I've not heard anyone say anything nice about this song. LOL.

Anywho, reading everyone's opinions is great! It just goes to show how different we all are in our appreciations and love for all things Stevie. Tis a GREAT THING! To all those out there who take umbrage to other people's OPINIONS, and to those who wish to pick fights BECAUSE of those opinions, please take note! This board should be for healthy and FRIENDLY discussion. Can't we celebrate each other's differences?

I love Gate and Garden, especially because of the little nuiances. When you hear Stevie sing Every night in the background. That was a great touch. That song and Sable on Blonde really had special little touches to them that were sophisticated and made them special. I would also like to add that that song is extremely feminine, yet rock. She definitely wasn't trying to act like one of the boys and I always thought that song demonstrated her feminine touch.

Yikes.

I agree with Mitzo, who said that Stevie's solo albums lacked Fleetwood Mac's quality of craftsmanship & inventiveness. There really isn't anything in the music tracks on her solo albums that's worth talking or writing about. By contrast, Fleetwood Mac tracks get continual attention. Music lovers talk about their favorite Buckingham guitar solo, whether it's "Go Your Own Way" or "Tango in the Night" or "World Turning," or their favorite Fleetwood drum track ("Hypnotized" is one of mine) or the precision punch-lope playing of John's or even Christine's introverted keyboards, which sneak in the back door & wind up redecorating the entire house. Can you imagine anyone talking seriously about any music or orchestration on a Stevie Nicks solo album? What would anyone say? "What guitar solo on Rock a Little gives you the shivers?" "Don't you dig all the creative filigree that decorates I Still Miss Someone?"

I mean, the idea is ludicrous from the get-go. There's so much on the Mac albums to engage the intellect & please the ear, apart from the songs themselves or even the lead singing. To this day, we speak of the Fleetwood Mac sound -- the sound of that band & the way it constructs a track around a song. It's the sound that has musically influenced dozens of other bands & thousands of other musicians. Stevie Nicks is the only thing happening on a Stevie Nicks album. If she falters, the whole castle crumbles.