Favorite Stevie album
 

Ok so, Stevie has a few different solo albums, some better than others, but i just want to know you guy's favorite Stevie albums. Mine is probably Bella Donna, then Wild Heart or Rock a Little. Trouble in Shang-gri-la is good too.

Probably Bella Donna.

It would go something like this, if I had to rank them:

1. Bella Donna (I love every song absolutely)
2. Wild Heart (I love all but like 1 song *ahem* Gate and Garden.... no)
3. In Your Dreams, Rock a Little, and Trouble in Shangri-La all tied (I love a majority of the songs)
4. Street Angel (I only like about 1/3 of the album)
5. Other Side of The Mirror (I only like about 1/4 of the album)

It changes all the time. A few times per year. Right now it is Wild Heart.

I agree, but as a rule its pretty much TISL, IYD, BD and WH in a four way tie.
The only songs I don't care for off of each are:
TISL-Everyday, That Made Me Stronger
IYD-IYD
BD-perfect
WH-perfect

Wild Heart, In Your Dreams, Trouble in Shangri-La, not in that order.

OSOTM would probably make it 4th, over Bella Donna, for me.

Michele

My best friend Bailie and I discuss this a lot and have pretty much decided that our favorites (based on how many of the songs we like per album) would be in order
1. Bella Donna & Wild Heart (Is there anything bad on either of them? Like really, they're perfect)
2. Trouble In Shangri-La (I love almost the entire thing, sans TMMS)
3. In Your Dreams (Love most of the songs, some are ok, and Cheaper Than Free is just plain awful)
4. Rock a Little (It's got some great songs, but a lot of them are just too dated and overly 80s for it to be considered a timeless album like Rumours or Bella Donna is, imo)
5. Street Angel (I like more than half of the songs)
6. Other Side of The Mirror (I don't love this album, but I do like some of it. Lyrically, it can be appreciated. But i'm not a fan of the production and a lot of the musical arrangements just bore me and are reminiscent of bad elevator music tracks piled on top of each other. I blame it on Rupert.)

For me, Bella Donna is perfect! I never get tired of listening to it. IYD is a close second though :) Of course, there are a lot of great songs on her other records, but those two are my most played. The only song I'm not a fan of on IYD is Cheaper Than Free.

1. Bella Donna (bc it's the definition of perfection)
2. The Wild Heart (like every song except Beauty and the Beast)
3. Rock a Little ( it's so over the top, but I just love it because it's out of control).
4. OSOTM
5. In Your Dreams
6. Street Angel (I like Street Angel, Blue Denim, Docklands, and Rose Garden)
7. TISL

1. Rock a Little (she really lets loose on this and it has tons of clever production stuff, full of loud in your face quirkiness)
2. Wild Heart (mostly because of B&TB, Nightbird, Stand Back, and Sable on Blonde)
3. TOSOTM (dark and dramatic, as it should be - I only dislike Rooms on Fire and Ghosts on this)
4. TISL (really uneven, marred by Sheryl's godawful production and with some really crap songs but Stevie was back and not doing too bad a job of it)
5. In Your Dreams (very conventional songwriting, mostly because they are Dave Stewart's songs, and, well, no WOW moment at all, quite a dull listen, for the most part)
6. BellaDonna (I was so disappointed to hear the beautiful singer songwriter of FM reduced to a crappy garage-band backup and "who cares?" singing and production. Took me years to recover and I still don't get most of it - the songs, the singing, the misery of the production and instrumentation, no mysticism or magic at all, cringe cringe cringe)
7. Street Angel (a sprawling mess, forgettable mostly non-Stevie-written material, bad production, and several of her all-time worst moments - Street Angel, Blue Denim, Rose Garden, Love is Like a River - whew, let's just try to forget)

Wow what a difficult decision. There are certainly some albums I like over the other, but given any small change to any of them, I could reconsider my list immediately. In no particular order my top 3:

TOSOTM: dark, dreary, fabulous Nicks in her finery. The track I could live w/o: TKOL
TISL: love it all except TMMS, 'nuff said
IYD: perfection, albeit New Orleans and Soldiers Angel, there I said it. Not a popular choice among fans....I Love YMBTO and IYD title track.

Next: BD: love all the tracks, but not crazy about her duets
SA: this is a sore pick, but I actually love it. The beauty and realistic Nicks(in her moment of distress). She showed us her world, which was just a continuation of TOSOTM. Dark, I love it.
TWH: Pretty good sophomore effort....I like it...esp. Enchanted, BATB, SB, NEC

least fave: RAL...this is the most dated IMO and doesn't stand up well to the others. Interestingly enough this was the album that made me a SN (and FM) fan. I fell in love with the mysterious, cryptically versed woman on tracks such as: TTM, ICW, IIWY, NSW, and ISFTT. The rest could really have been shelved.

LMAo...we have almost the same list in reverse....just goes to show the diversity in the FM/SN community. I tend to think we All have good taste in music but at differing degrees.

My fave Stevie Album.

I love them all.

Bella Donna is on the top.

Current Ranking:
 

1) The Wild Heart
2) Bella Donna - Trouble in Shangri-La - In Your Dreams (all tied)
3) Rock A Little
4) Street Angel - The Other Side Of The Mirror (Both pretty terrible albums, let's be honest)

1. Bella Donna
2. In Your Dreams
3. Trouble in Shangri-La
4. The Wild Heart


Then there would be a big gap between Street Angel, TOSOTM and Rock a Little, which is too bad because each has one or two great songs on them.

In Your Dreams towers above the rest.

I had written a detailed synopsis only to have it disappear when I pressed submit, so abbreviated will have to do :(

1. Bella Donna: I can agree with some of the comments about the production, especially the drums, but rank the debut #1 because the highpoints were never matched after this release. The studio version of Edge of Seventeen is classic, although I never like her drop in key in concert. The vocal on the Highwayman matches her early Mac classic-ness. The collaboration with Tom Petty was also a good little diversion for Stevie.

2. The Wild Heart: If the lyrics were stronger, I would rank this #1 if only for her vocals. She literally sang her ass off from start to finish and managed to pull off weak, almost child like lyrics in spots. I still listen to this record and enjoy her performances immensely here.

3. In Your Dreams: I like this record for her performances and her effort in singing these songs well, scores high points. The sad thing about this record is the poor marketing decisions in getting the "word out". I'm still scratching my head why Orleans was not put on the radio for its high notes, it's almost like the powers that be forgot what made her famous. Songs like Moonlight and Annabelle Lee are wonderful to listen to. I like the whole record.

4. Street Angel: After hearing the version of Mirror Mirror from the sessions, I'm left thinking about one of the worst gaffs in her career. Why was this stellar performance not the opening track on this outing? Including dreck like Docklands instead? That said, I think her vocals in the early 90's had reached a return to form, despite the Klonopin. If you listen to Desiree from Rick Vito's solo record, she packed a lot of effort into her singing. For the most part, she sounds good on Street Angel.

5. Trouble in Shangri-La: Too many misses to rank this record higher. Most notably, a beautifully written title track is destroyed by a lazy, poorly recorded vocal. Same can be said for the classic Candlebright, ruined by lazy singing. I like the record mostly for Fall From Grace which she sings with effort and class. Ooops, forgot to mention Planets of the Universe which I really enjoy and like what they did with the song, she also sings it perfectly. Sorcerer though missed its time on the white album and is one of those songs that just cannot stand the update process.

6. The Other Side of the Mirror: I really liked this record in 1989. Sadly, it hasn't held up. Long way to Go, would have been stellar with a stronger arrangement and Rooms on Fire, with it's strong vocal performance deserved more competent production. The rest of this record is forgettable.

7. Rock a Little: Where do I start with this one. When I first played it, my mind played tricks on me because I thought I heard better singing. After a couple more plays it was a major WTF moment and going to a concert on this tour only made matters worse, I almost threw in the towel as a fan. I can tolerate I Can't Wait, Some Become Strangers, Imperial Hotel and HAEWYFY, but the rest, I skip.

I love them all for different reasons but if I had to order them then the list would look like this:

1. In Your Dreams (it's been almost two years and I still love this record like nothing else)
2. Trouble In Shangri-La ("Planets of The Universe" and "Love Is" make this album essential for me)
3. The Other Side of The Mirror (I feel so sentimental about this record. It was my first Stevie Nicks' experience)
4. Rock a Little (some people love it, some people hate it, but when I first heard it I knew it would rank as one of my all time favourite albums from the 80's. I love the synths arrangements and Stevie's vocals here)
5. Bella Donna (for most people this is Stevie's magnum opus, for me this was the beginning of better things to come)
6. Street Angel (I love this album no matter what people think of it. "Blue Denim", "Greta", "Rose Garden" and "Destiny" are classics)
7. Wild Heart (great album but there are few clunkers like "Sable on Blonde" or "I Will Follow You" with Tom Petty. I listen to this record rarely).

Crystal Visions!!!!!

:sorry:

Wow, it's hard! If I must do a ranking, it probably would be:

- The Wild Heart (Not only for If Anyone Falls and Stand Back, but they're amazing songs, and the quality of the entire album is really good)
- Trouble in Shangri-La (for some demos and obviously, Planets of the Universe, what a wonderful song.)
- The Other Side of the Mirror (I love it for Rooms on Fire, and even when I'm not a fan of Whole lotta trouble)
- Rock A Little (It could be higher, but I don't know why I can't put it there. A tie with TOSOTM)
- Bella Donna (Nothing to say...)
- In Your Dreams (I'm still learning it!)
- Street Angel (I never listened to all the songs)

Rock A Little
The Wild Heart
Bella Donna
Street Angel
TOSOTM
IYD
TISL

Did I forget any?

This is the one song on this record I couldn't live without. If anything I'll listen to this song and be happy for the rest of the day.

Well said, I agree on these two.

For me, that song is "If Anyone Falls"- seriously works wonders.

I agree totally, after listening to it, very hard to get it out of my head and such a great chorus.

I agree. The chours is really powerful and you can easily sing along. It's quite a surprise that it didn't hit Top 10 back in the day.

Maybe not but it did get a lot of airtime on MTV and my local radio stations played it quite a bit. I used to hear it blasting out of one of my neighbor's backyards one full summer several times.

As of this minute I'd rank them this way:

1a) Side 2 of Rock A Little (minus "The Nightmare", plus "I Can't Wait")
1b) Bella Donna (with "Gold & Braid" & "The Blue Lamp" as bonus tracks)
1c) Trouble In Shangri-La (with "Touched By An Angel" as bonus track)
2) In Your Dreams
3) Street Angel
4a) "Rooms On Fire" only from TOSOTM
4b) The Wild Heart
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5) Side 1 of Rock A Little (plus "The Nightmare", minus "I Can't Wait")
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6) The Other Side Of The Mirror (except "Rooms On Fire")

Pretty much in order:

Rock A Little
Wild Heart / Other Side of the Mirror (Tie)
Bella Donna
TISL / Street Angel (Tie)
In Your Dreams

Totally agree about the Wild Heart vocals-just amazing wild vocals that would NEVER be topped. But I must admit I am scratching my head and your description of TISL- I've always thought her vocals were remarkably powerful and absolutely live up to the lyrics, a return to her epic title tracks. But I guess we all hear things differently?

Adam

It got a lot of airplay where I live too. So did "Nightbird." I had those pegged as bigger hits than they were at the national level.

I think what turns me off is her more nasally tone on the song, to me it just begs for a soft, mysterious intro, something in the vein that she sings Moonlight. That said, it is such a well written song and is no doubt an epic title track, the "run through the grass" part I think is better, and boy, what powerful lyrics.

1. Wild Heart

2. In Your Dreams

3. Bella Donna

4. Rock a Little

5. Trouble in Shangri La

6. street angel

7. The Other Side of the Mirror

I love Sable on Blonde too. It has great harmonies and great beat. The song is very unique and it pulls you in.

Two favorites
 

My two favorites are Wild Heart and TISL, they alternate for "favorite" spot.

Next up are Bella Donna / Street Angel / In Your Dreams. All these albums are good except for one to three songs on each.

Finally, Rock a Little and TOSOTM are at the bottom. Both sound dated and I only like about half the songs on each. TOSOTM in particular is something of a murky mess.

I've been hashing this out in my mind for days, and I've come to the conclusion I really don't have a favorite. I can't say any one album is profoundly stronger or weaker than another. They all have their classic songs and complete duds, pretty much at the same ratio. I definitely like Wild Heart the very least, and never listen to it. But that's not to say it's a bad album... it's just not to my tastes. Depending on my mood and what's happening in my life, I enjoy each Stevie album at different times. A couple of times a year I think the airy fairyness of Other Side Of The Mirror is amazing, and I can't stop listening to it... but most of the time I stay away from it. For that matter, I really don't listen to Stevie's solo albums that often at all these days... I'm really more of a fan of her music within Fleetwood Mac. And I'm honestly pretty burned out on the Mac as well. I badly need new music from these folks... I fear my attention span is finally waning after all this time.

I am also much more a Stevie FM fan than a Stevie solo fan. And I also find myself listening less and less to my FM and Stevie collection, my interest is flickering. Too many years of too little new material, I think.

I'm somewhat on the same page as Louie and Mitzo, being more of a Stevie fan within the awesomeness of Fleetwood Mac; something about the combo of Fleetwood and McVie that bring her songs to life. That said in the grand scheme of things her output with the band doesn't match the potential it had over the years, another album between Mirage and Tango for example, more songs on both albums etc. What has kept me intrigued were the solo efforts by both in the last couple of years, both were strong albums and showed much promise for a new Mac project. I'm very disappointed they chose the long road trek vs creativity, they can't possibly need that much money at their age, but who knows. I've said many times that this 35 plus year fan is sitting this tour out and I never in a million years thought I say that.

Ditto to all. I am also sitting out this tour even though they will be playing just a few miles from my house.

Wow, seems we have a concenses here, I, too love some Stevie albums, but enjoy her work with the Mac even more.

What is it about this core (5) people that bring out the best in one another?