I remember first hearing Rock a Little and being shocked. Her voice had deteriorated quite audibly and the record is so overproduced in parts--by a number of different producers. That said, I held out a lot of hope for Tango. But when I first heard Nicks's work on it I was horrified: a new low. She pulled off a passably poppy performance on Seven Wonders, but I remember being bummed that she didn't write it.
It wasn't until I heard "Blue Denim" that I felt the old Stevie was back--and better than before.
Tango was a weird album for me. In one sense I admired it. Lindsey and Christine wrote some exciting material. It was well produced and relevant to an 80s audience. But there was definitely a spark missing. It seemed as if the primary goal of the recording was to make a big, money-making blockbuster--no less or no more. It is, like so many artifacts 80s, a calculated endeavor. Whereas Rumors was as much a testament to individual expression as it was a follow up to a big hit, Tango seems like a more cynical, forced experiment.
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