The Ledge - Which album does Stevie sing best on?

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Which album does Stevie sing best on?

Here's my thoughts:

Bella Donna: Lover her voice on Bella Donna. 79-81 her voice what at her best in my opinion. Power but still tuneful.

Wild Heart: She still has the same kind of voice as Bella Donna, but it has more vibrato, possibly due to advanced cocaine use. So weaker vocals than Bella Donna.

Rock A Little: What's happened? I get so confused by the difference between WH Stevie and RAL Stevie. Her appearance has become much bigger, she's put on weight, her voice.... zany and cocaine fused raspiness. SO MUCH COcAINE! I don't like it....

OTOSM: Stevies off cocaine and on Klonopin. As it's a tranquilizer, I feel like her vocal sounds extremely tired and uninspiring on this album. I also think this is the start of the type of Stevie voice we have now, in that there's less vibrato and more nasally. Not great vocally though.

Street Angel: Her voice sounds strained and again tired... Tailing off from her Klonopin... she probably felt incredibly weak.

TISL: The start of the modern Stevie voice. I like her vocals on this, her voice sounds good, although getting increasingly nasally.

In Your Dreams: Obviously age is starting to come into factor here, which means Stevie can't hit as many high notes, but her vocals are still impressive.

24 Karat: I don;t know what to expect from this. The Dealer was weak vocally, 24 Karat Gold is amazing vocally! I think they'll be good however.

So my choice: Bella Donna. Her best vocal period.

I'm probably going to be in the minority here but I like her modern day voice better than her "classic" voice. I chose "Trouble in Shangri-La" because even though her voice is much more nasal sounding, her range is really powerful, imo. I think her "In Your Dreams" voice is actually a little better but she lost some of the range that she had on TISL. Her best vocal on a classic album is Bella Donna. For me, the only album where her vocals are not on par is "Street Angel". She sounds out of it (which I'm sure she was). I do like some of the vocals on that album but over all she has a drawl or something, almost like Tom Petty, where the end of the words goes down and it's a little distracting to me. But in all honesty I like them all in their own way.

If I had to come up with a vocal performance that feels absolutely perfect to me it would be "Crystal" which may be another odd choice to some but I LOVE it. That's the voice that I like best.

How you left off the Fleetwood Mac albums is beyond me. I chose The Wild Heart because I couldn't choose Mirage. :rolleyes:

My favorite vocal performance though, is on the 1980 Live album - that take of Rhiannon always knocks me out of my chair.

You think Stevie put on weight by RAL? She's practically a twig! But the difference in her vocal is staggering. I think her best vocal album is Bella Donna, her voice is simply stunning on that album, that's the voice I fell in love with.

Songwriting wise, Bella Donna is her best and my favourite album. Vocally though, I think she did some amazing things with her voice on the Wild Heart and she sings every song with passion, conviction and range. The Wild Heart is not without it's problems though, especially with the lyrics and some of the production choices but she manages to take some precarious lyrics and sing them in a way that makes them a joy to listen to. Gate and Garden is the best example of a dud that becomes a great song only because of her vocal. She never quite pulled that off again as later duds were simply duds. I agree that the change between the stunning vocals on the Wild Heart to the tattered croak we hear on Rock a Little was truly shocking. That is without a doubt the moment her career shifted from the bright superstar to the steady decline in sales with each successive album.

This is always a hard subject because I love and enjoy all different periods of Stevie's vocals. Yes, the "Bella Donna" era was stellar, and I loved her voice on that record...but I also REALLY LOVED the raspy, shredded, wild and (sometimes) thin & quiet vocals from "Rock A Little"! But my favorite era of her voice (and this is probably for purely nostalgic reasons) was the "Wild Heart" era...probably because it's right in between those two albums, and her voice still retained the pure honey of BD ("Enchanted" and "Sable" are good examples) yet hinted at what was to come with RAL (the high notes on "Nothing Ever Changes" and some aspects of "If Anyone Falls"..."baby I see your shadow against the wall...") so of course that's the one I voted for.

I agree that TOSOTM vocals were about 80% passionless and a huge step down, but there were some bright spots like "Doing the Best...", "Rooms On Fire" and "Long Way To Go". TISL had some really strong vocals (the passion was back because she was sober for the first time in a long time) but there were a lot of spots that sounded like she had been smoking 2 packs a day. You can hear a little bit of this in "Planets", "Candlebright", "It's Only Love" and "Every Day". A little bit of this smokiness carried over into Fleetwood's SYW album with "Destiny Rules" and "Illume". Yuck.

Her vocals on IYD were pretty phenomenal and I think that had a lot to do with the fact she played it safe and didn't attempt any high notes. The soft vocal on the "Moonlight" verses still give me chill bumps to this day, and you can hear how strong her voice has gotten with "Italian Summer".

From what we've heard from 24KG so far, I am really loving. Her voice seems to be "aging" for the first time since TOSOTM. I lovingly have started calling it Stevie's "granny voice". Not that I think it sounds bad or anything. Someone on a previous thread said it sounded like a monkey on helium. That high pitched-ness that we hear on "Starshine" and parts of "The Dealer" when she stays in a higher register, is just part of the aging process. This happened to Loretta Lynn and many others when they hit their late 60's, early 70's. Also, for the most part, she's chosen to stay in the same key as the demos, adding to the high pitched "helium-ness", which also makes it sound strained in some parts. But the main thing I'm loving (and REALLY APPRECIATING) with this new project is that she's saying "NO" to any form of auto tune or pitch correcting. She's keeping it organic. Strained vocals? At times, yes...but still on key. Pitchiness? Oh yeah, most definitely...but the "passion" and "feeling" way overcompensates.

Sorry...I'm now seeing how long this post is, and I apologize. Rant over. I'll shut up now!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Artemis (Post 1143652)

You think Stevie put on weight by RAL? She's practically a twig!

In the "altered photos" of the album cover and artwork, she might be a "twig", but have you seen any footage of the Rock A Little tour??? Our gal most DEFINITELY gained some weight!!! Watch the Wild Heart US Festival and then watch the Red Rocks DVD. You'll notice a HUGE difference!

I will always love Stevie's voice and have for over 35 plus years. I will say that the answer to this would be The early days are my favorites.

Bella Donna: she showcases her vocal range;it is sweet sounding, yet powerful, rough, and intense.
It was between Bella Donna and The Wild Heart.
I chose Wild Heart cause I prefer that rougher sound, with the occasional cracks. I wish she had ceased the cocaine use at this point. Beauty and the Beast is vocal perfection.

I voted for Bella Donna, but The Wild Heart is pretty much equal to it. Both have really strong vocals on songs like Edge of Seventeen, How Still My Love, Bella Donna, Leather and Lace, Outside the Rain, Kind of Woman, The Wild Heart, Nothing Ever Changes, Beauty and the Beast, Stand Back, Enchanted and Sable on Blond. I actually think Beauty and the Beast is the best studio vocal performance of her solo career.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sorcerer999 (Post 1143716)

Why does the RAL cover look so different to her on tour?

She sings her heart out on BD.That made an imprint in my brain.

I thought her voice changed between Bella Donna and Mirage.

Stevie's vocal limitations have always been a big part of her appeal. I see that she is actually a better singer now than in earlier days. She enunciates now so you can hear lyrics and she sings better in that the shrill rasp and overblown goat-like vibrato of early years is gone. She doesn't affect styles like she used to either... on TOSOTM she is obviously imitating Bob Dylan's drawl, having toured with him a few years earlier in Australia. Icky. I disliked her vocals on her two earliest solo efforts for the most part, they sound throwaway and harsh and hastily done, which is made worse by a lot of stunningly ghastly production and arrangements that just coarsen the sound even more.

I think her best vocals are on Bella Donna and The Wild Heart, but my favourite vocals are from Rock a Little. :sorry: I love the raspiness and yearning in her voice from I Sing for the Things as well pretty much all others. My favourite vocals on the album though are on the song Rock a Little The sense of vulnerability and sadness is overwhelming, and though might not be the best, invite a sense of the message she was trying to convey. I think OSOTOM has pretty good vocals actually, though perhaps uninspired (several exceptions of course). Street Angel could have been a lot better. I actually like the songs and some of the vocals on the album, but the music itself is just not my favourite. TISL is marvelous, in my opinion, because for the first time since RAL there was some strength behind the vocals (Planets, Sorcerer, Candlebright, to name a few). IYD is nice, but I think someone mentioned in a different thread that there was a glass wall between them and the album, and I can agree. For some reason, most of the songs just didn't stick to me like others. I love IYD, but again, I just think some of the vocals were too contrived, and lacked the organic sense felt in (what we've heard of) 24KG or TISL. Anyways, sorry for the length, but I inwardly debate this on a regular basis lol.