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Old 11-19-2022, 10:19 AM
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aleuzzi aleuzzi is offline
Addicted Ledgie
 
Join Date: May 2003
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I thought Rock a Little was a mess. I didn’t understand all the synthesizers and awkward attempts to serve the musical zeitgeist of the mid-80s.

I remember being baffled after listening to song after song—until “Imperial Hotel.” All of a sudden I thought “she’s back, her instrument is still intact.” Yes, she sounds a tad overwrought even here, but that suits the subject of the song. (Musically, it could have fit easily on Bella Donna. Her Tom Petty tributes like this were her best departures from the FM sound she perfected on “How Still my Love.”)

I remember a few weeks later reading Mark Coleman’s Rolling Stone review of RAL and agreeing with all of it (that she should take her own advice and rock a little more). I also felt vindicated that like me he saw the gold in “Imperial Hotel,” a song hardly anyone appears to like.

I saw her live on this tour. She was an absolute mess, all coked up and manic. At one point she threw a tambourine behind her in the air and it landed some place back stage. Here’s hoping no one’s head was split apart by it.
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