IYD - A thread for the underwhelmed
 

Hmm...well having now had a listen through the album, all I can say is that personally it doesn't really do anything for me.

There are loads of people posting in other threads about how excited they are, how wonderful the album is, etc. I wonder how they will feel in 6 months once the gloss has worn off?

A lot of people don't like TISL, but I really thought that was one of her best albums of her solo career, and I can listen to that album on repeat quite happily. However IYD just doesn't have that appeal.

The songs sound unfinished, like we are listening to demos and her voice is flat and emotionless on most songs.

I do quite like Ghost Are Gone, although it does need a bit of work to make it flow better and the best song on the album I feel is In Your Dreams, possibly the only one that might have single appeal. Secret Love isn't all that bad either, although we have been exposed to that one.

So yeah, I'm underwhelmed, I was expecting so much more. I can't see this album getting mainstream success. Any initial chart success will be mainly because the hard-core fans are buying up more than one copy, but that will drop off after the first week or two.

Anyone else feel this way?

*barricades door and waits for onslaught of abuse* :rolleyes:

Hmmmm...
 

In a word...NO! This album is such a storytelling mantra in my eyes. I think Stevie has poured out the last 10 years of her life in this CD and I am totally impressed. Her voice is full of emotion. I guess we have to agree to disagree.

Great thread. I agree with you that generally core fanbases can be quick to label something they like as the best thing evAr, and that their opinions often mellow (and sometimes reverse) over time. I guess only time will tell, and we'll see in about a year how the album holds up.

However, regarding the songs sounding demo-ish and her voice falling flat... All I can say is I think we must be listening to different albums. ;)

I know that I really like this album. How it will ultimately hold up to my other favourites by her, it's definitely too soon to tell.

I can see where you're coming from. I have to say, at first I was a bit underwhelmed too...like I was expecting more from it. I liked the overall feel and especially the sound of her voice , but couldn't really pick out favorite individual songs (except for Moonlight, that one won me over instantly).

Compared to TISL, I really like the flow of the songs better here. Now, let me say I enjoy TISL, but to me, the songs on it sound kind of disjointed. To me it was like, ok when Lindsey always just knew exactly what to do with Stevie's songs......like compare the Tom Petty Gypsy demos and then listen to what Lindsey did to it on Mirage. Amazing. TISL to me was like someone didn't know exactly what to do with her songs . This album sounds more "Stevie" to me. I hope that made sense :D

But really the more I listened to it, especially when listening to the lyrics, I just adore the album now. I hope it grows on you too!

--Shel

I have to admit I listen to everything on my iPod, and it plays the tracks in alphabetical order rather than in track number order. I guess that doesn't help the flow of the tracks at all. I've only ever found that to be a problem in concept albums though that are meant to have a particular order to the tracks.

I really do hope this album grows on me, I hated Lindsey's songs on SYW until I had listened half a dozen times. So you never know, my mind might change?

"her voice is flat and emotionless on most songs"

I guess I can understand being underwhelmed by the songs but I really don't understand this ^^^.
Her voice on TISL and SYW makes me cringe at times, its a monotone, nasal mess compared to her voice on IYD, atleast to me.

i've never heard of anyone who listens to an album alphabetically instead of in the track order. :shocked: even albums that aren't "concept albums" are often painstakingly sequenced to tell a story, influence the mood, keep the flow going, etc. IMO the album is one unit.

What exactly were you expecting? What did you like about TISL exactly? I know that I tried to force myself to like TISL and couldn't do it. There were too many producers in that pot and the album fell apart. I instantly liked this album. Lot of it has to do with the production and the details. I have read posts on other sites were people are slamming this album, yet, holding up TISL and I really don't get it all. I think some people fought so hard for TISL that they feel all the love for this album is a slap in the face. The only reason I'm saying this is because usually when people say they don't like this album, they mention TISL. I wonder if you want to like this album.

Also, In Your Dreams is a definite single. When I heard that song, I knew it was a radio hit. However, I'm wondering where it will get played.

I have to agree with this. Albums have a set tracklist for a reason. A song may flow better with another song, and they may even strengthen each other.

And if the flow is a problem, you can't honestly complain unless you listen to it in the order it was mean to be listened to in. :thumbsup:

I think Stevie's vocals are good, however, I don't see the difference from TISL too strongly, as others seem to. She does sound more into the songs though.

I kinda expected to be included in this thread....but as of now I can't. Hmmmmm....Being a bit of a cynic. I will say, maybe I'll be underwhelmed once the excitement of a new album wears off. Give me a little time:laugh::D.

Mick

Glad this was brought up.
As it stands the album has *still* not been released, yet it feels like everyone has listened to it endlessly already and are fairly familiar with it to the point of declaring it her all time greatest.
I personally love it,and took to it immediately and like it.But I believe many got swept up in the buzz of 'newness' after years of waiting for fresh Stevie tunes.Be interesting to see how it goes after it sits proudly on our shelves in hard copy form and enough time passes to allow for being objective.

And the mainstream citics some of them who are calling it her best album ever or coming 'remarkably close"to her classic work with Fleetwood Mac are really hardcore fan plants enchanted by the newness?:shrug:

Nah those critics got a fat cheque from Warner Reprise:lol:

No they're critics.

The same people who praise Gaga and give her albums the same rating as Stevie's. :shrug:

I swear I can't respect most critics when they gave The Fame four stars and above, and their reviews of Stevie are like 3.

Well if you know how to change an Ipod Classic to play songs in track order rather than in alphabetical order then please let me know. As it doesn't record the track numbers there is no other way that I know of to play the songs...

EDIT: You know what I think I've just discovered how to do it - if you use the search function (as I alway do when searching) it gives me alphabetical order which has always annoyed me. However if I spend five minutes scrolling manually through album search, it actually plays in track order. How cool is that. :lol:

I guess I'm spoilt by the fact that (as someone else mentioned) Lindsey has done such great work over the years with Stevie's stuff. I'm always a little disappointed in Stevie's solo work compared with her Fleetwood Mac work.

I'm quite willing to like this album if I could find it likeable. Despite all the criticism of TISL I liked it the moment I played it and played it constantly. IYD will get a couple of plays (going to listen again while I wash up and tidy the house), but I suspect like all those recent Lindsey Buckingham solo albums it will get quickly forgotten.

I know that everyone here loves it, I'm sorry I don't. I was looking forward to the album, but perhaps not as excitedly as some of you.

If you change the shuffle settings to album, it should play the tracks in sequence.

Thank you! Damn it I've had it for two years and it has always annoyed me. I guess I shoud have read the instruction booklet but I'm a man and we don't do instruction booklets. :lol:

I am also a man and approve this statement. I have things for years, and one day I'll find something out about them that I would have known for years if I'd read instructions. :laugh:

:laugh: good work. yeah, it does record the track numbers - it's embedded in the metadata for each file. :wavey:

You know what they say? You can't please everyone!.... Have some cookies, maybe you'll change your mind.

I agree. Although, I don't think Stevie's voice has sounded this good in years, the songs, for the most part sound flat in that there's nothing behind them as far as emotion for me. :shrug: I like her voice here, just not many of the songs or the way they're performed.

:lol:

Finally have internet again and just had a listen through and my first impression is WOW!! I LOVE LOVE LOVE it!!! Just having NEW music from Stevie is a gift! I'm going to have to give it a few listen to's before I can say what I love or hate about certain songs, but first impression, very impressed!

The reason I laugh at that above is because I have to get my 16 year old daughter to do everything for me when it comes to electronics :laugh:

Just listened to it again. This time I listened to it with a more critical ear. The only song i would ax is Everybody loves You. Other then that, I'm very pleased. And Stevie needs to work with Dave Stewart again. If another album is down the road that is.

Mick

This album, for me, reminds me a lot of TISL. There's a good amount of the album I can listen to on repeat, and a good amount that'll really have to grow on me. For instance, for TISL, songs I instantly loved were;

- TISL
- Sorcerer
- Planets
- Every Day
- I Miss You
- Bombay
- Fall From Grace
- Love Is

The rest of the album had to grow on me for months, and one track even years. For IYD, it's pretty much the same thing. Songs I instantly love are;

- Secret Love
- IYD
- WSS
- New Orleans
- Moonlight
- Annabel
- Ghosts
- Italian Summer

The rest are going to have to grow on me. Now, I'm not saying I hate them, I'm just saying they haven't caught on yet. There's not one track on either CD I completely dislike, which makes both TISL and IYD two of her best solo works for me, I can honestly say.

So you've never fully enjoyed anything Stevie's done solo, yet you feel underwhelmed from In Your Dreams, and you're shocked?

I liked it the first time I heard it. I've listened now a half dozen times (I'm still holding back a bit until I have it in my hot big old hands) and I love it. No, I LOVE it.

I think Stevie does things, with her voice, she's never done before. I think there is a grandeur and depth that hasn't been there in a long time. A real passion. She is the Poet back in her grand storytelling role. Nothing tentative, nothing held back. I was thinking about this yesterday. The Unleashed tour? Bull. THIS is Stevie, unleashed.

It's beautiful. I will say this about all her previous recordings. There are at least 3 or 4 songs on each that I continually skip over. As a matter of fact, when I was setting up my iPod, I only included 1 or 2 songs from each record. There are two songs I'm not overly crazy about on IYD (Soldier's Angel and the Ghost one). But, I still appreciate them enough (and am growing more fond of them with each listen) that I don't skip over them at all. And that's never happened before.

So, yeah. The fact that she's recording, at this age, when she has been discontent with the business end of things, and the fact that all this sounds original and current...is a total blessing. I'm not underwhelmed at all. So, I guess I shouldn't be on this thread, but ... I felt like encouraging you to give it a few more listens. No expectations of what you should or shouldn't feel...just let the music and the stories wash over you.
(Sheesh, I sound like a New Age Guru).

i don't know if i am underwhelmed, but my first reaction listening was that i love some songs, but some did not feel quite right upon first hearing.

maybe it's just me, but some songs sound like she tries too hard to squeeze in all the words she wants, or sings them in an odd or uncomfortable way, off beat rather than on certain beats. but i've had this issue with her songs for a while. probably first noticed it on osotm. some songs did not seem to be sung in a smooth and polished, finished way. like juliet, for example ("dancing to the beat of some man's anciet drum"). lindsey or jimmy never would have put that on the album, you know what i mean? they'd have her streamline it or something, or say nope, just not ready for an album yet, it's not working.

it's like bella donna is flawless, seamless, perfection. wh and ral are similar, they have the smooth polished song feel. then osotm happened. and many songs on each cd after that has had at least a few songs on it with this issue, to me, anyways.

but i suppose i should be used to this by now, it's sort of become her style. and it's probably just me because i never hear complaints of it. maybe it's just how it sounds to me.

i also dread when she has a "cause" song and insists it will be on her next album (whether or not it's one of her better songs to record). like desert angel. i love it, but like, well, it's never gone on any sn mixed tapes or cd's i've ever made, you know what i mean? and illume. with new orleans, i am pleasantly surprised i like it as much as i do. a few lyrics stick in my side, but listening a few times i get past it and can flow with it.


anyone else wish we could hear john shanks give his hand on soldier's angel? (my favorite songs from tisl are the ones he worked on). i do love lindsey though, so, i'll take it. i'd love a buckinghamnicks cd next! (decided to put my thoughts on soldier's angel in a seperate thread.....


i'm loving iyd, but some songs will take a few times of me listening to them to get the flow. over all, i'm really happy with it. since we know sn will never work with jimmy i. again, i can certainly deal with how iyd came out. dave did great working with her very wordy lyrics, and many songs do kick some butt!! i don't dislike any. bd and wh will probably always be my faves, but this will rank up there with ral and sa to me, and half of tisl. i'd give it 4 out of 5 stars, easily.

I think people are entitled to not like things. :shrug:

I haven't listened to IYD since Tuesday (not sure if the RS stream is still up); I thought I'd take a break from it and wait until the copy I ordered from B&N arrives.

Anyway...I don't think it's her "best album ever," but it comes pretty close. The only song I don't especially care for is Everybody Loves You (that intro and Stevie's "cahn't" irritate the hell out of me).

I was going to start a thread called "If Anyone Doesn't Fall in Love"....

But you beat me to it. Anyway, I'm just going to get it all out in this one shot, and then I'll shut up :)

I'm super happy that you guys all love the CD and I hope it does really well for Stevie's sake. I hope that she tours behind it and that the tour is really successful. I like Stevie's voice a lot on this CD, and I like the production. Also, it sounds like she tried to update her sound without totally reinventing herself (I for one understand when songwriters get bored and want to reinvent themselves but I usually hate the results :) ), and if she really did have a great time making the CD and it leads to more CDs, then more power to her. I really like Secret Love and Annabel Lee, even though I didn't really like the demo for the latter. For What It's Worth and In Your Dreams are pretty good. And I for one really like the vocal on Soldier's Angel. But...

For me, for the most part, the songs on this CD are pretty pedestrian. I'm hoping that when I listen to it more on my stereo, or in my car, it'll sound better, or that maybe with time I"ll come to like some of the songs more. For me, the last part of the CD is just boring. I'm a huge Italphile, but I just can't get into Italian Summer. I don't know how to say this any differently, but it just doesn't sound like a Stevie song. I like her lyrically simple country songs (That's Alright, Rose Garden, etc.) and mysterious, minor chord songs (Rhiannon, Sisters of the Moon, How Still My Love, Planets of the Universe, etc) and her rockers (Fall from Grace, Outside the Rain, etc) but Italian Summer and You May Be the One just sound like pop schlock to me. And the thing is that I really want to like this CD, but I don't. :(

Also, no one has mentioned politics here, and I feel a little wary about doing that myself, but it's a problem for me on this CD. I like Stevie's voice on both New Orleans and Soldier's Angel, but each has lyrics that just make me mad. I love that Stevie took time to visit US soldiers in hospitals. She obviously has a big heart, and so I really don't to be misunderstood here. But the line "righteous war", to me, is just vile. I know that this isn't the place to debate the war in Iraq, but personally the idea of a "righteous war" is really awful. Also, the line about forgiving in New Orleans really puts me off. The federal government completely abandoned the poor. So again, maybe it's just me, and if you disagree, that's totally fine, but for me personally the idea behind this song is so facile and simplistic to the point where it seems emotionally unauthentic.

Anyway, I don't have friends who are into Fleetwood Mac and Stevie the way I am, so I appreciate having this forum. I'm glad that there are so many of you who love this CD, even though I don't. :)

Kevin

I think here voice sounds very heartfelt on this Album. You belive her what she is singin. :angel:

you're canadian ... it's okay. i'm glad you got to listen to it!

i agree. i don't see why people need to come in here and defend the album - there are good vibes all over the board, and the threadstarter wasn't being an asshole :shrug:

I know what you mean and I don't want to be political either, but I don't think that the song thinks the war was righteous. Just the opposite. And really I think the word "righteous" is used in a negative sense in both that song and in You May Be the One, to mean righteous subjectively, but self-righteous (and worse) to anyone viewing the matter objectively.

Michele

Stevie's songs and albums aren't for everyone. I accept that.

However, I disagree vehemently that these songs sound unfinished or Stevie's voice sounds flat and/or emotionless. This is the most passionate I've heard Stevie sing on one of her solo albums since at least 1985. I don't count Stevie's contributions to Say You Will as a solo album even though some people seem to because, well it's a Fleetwood Mac record.

There are songs I gravitate toward the most on this CD, both of which were mentioned at least somewhat favorably in the OP. "In Your Dreams" just screams "single" to me and has some of her impassioned vocals and lyrics, and "Ghosts Are Gone" also is Stevie at her searing rocker best. There are songs I just don't get into on this CD, namely "For What It's Worth" and "Cheaper Than Free" which should have been left on The Blackbird Diaries and not included here.

I feel for the Stevie fans who don't connect with this album for whatever reason. Don't get me wrong, I was not a fan of Street Angel or most of SYW from the start and my feelings haven't changed. But I love this as much as I loved Bella Donna when it came out. :blob1:

I hope it grows on those that don't like it at the moment. I have to say that I am in heaven. Being a 30+ year fan I feel this piece of work is right up there with BD and WH. But I know how these fans are feeling....it was the same for me 10 years ago. I still cringed when I try to make it through TISL :sorry:

I won't abuse you :)

On the first listen I had to agree with you, but now that I've listened to it three times I'm liking it better. I love Moonlight, For What It's Worth, and I've always liked Annabelle Lee. I also agree with you about TISL, I love every song on that album.

~Maria

Not shocked...disappointed. After TISL I had high hopes for this album. I listened to them both again this morning and TISL is such a better album. I have to admit that on the third (or is it fourth) listen of IYD (can't say I'm not trying) I don't hate it, but still underwhelmed.

Cheaper Than Free must be the single worse duet that Stevie has ever done though. Stevie doesn't duet well in most cases, but this really is the worse song on the album...

:sorry:

ohhhh...i love cheaper than free. in this lovely economy it could go over well too. it sounds like something i could picture being an old demo of hers, yet it's new. it's kind of innocent, young, naive, but so totally in love.


what's warmer than a sun drenched land - your hand....

Is it me....or does anybody else find those opening piano chords on Cheaper then Free terribly Depressing?

Mick