IYD Press Reviews & Discussion - Page 16

Jondalar · #**226** 05-12-2011, 09:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Amlyn

In Your Dreams: A Triumphant Return for the Queen of Rock & Roll

Stevie Nicks's New CD, Her First in 10 Years, Shows Nicks in Fine Voice and Storytelling Form
Mike Sarzo, Yahoo! Contributor Network

http://www.associatedcontent.com/art...g2.html?cat=33

Stevie Nicks is back.

Anyone who has followed her ever since her commercially successful 2001 album Trouble in Shangri-la knows that Nicks has seldom been far from the road. After spending the bulk of 2002 in the studio with Fleetwood Mac to
record their last CD Say You Will, she and the Mac toured in 2003 and 2004 to support that album. One year later, she and Don Henley toured, then she continued the tour on her own. She toured solo again in 2007 and 2008, then toured with Fleetwood Mac in 2009. She even threw in a few shows in an August respite from recording.

Now, Nicks is back with In Your Dreams, her first studio album since Trouble in Shangri-la. That previous record saw Nicks debut at No. 5, which was the highest chart position for a Stevie Nicks solo disc since 1983's The Wild Heart, which featured one of her best-known songs, "Stand Back."

The new CD features Nicks's voice in top shape. She uses that instrument to great effect with some of the most passionate singing she's had in a very long time. She sings "Secret Love", the first single, and a song that just missed the cut on Rumour in a comfortable alto that keeps Nicks from scraping into male range.

The title track features inspired vocals and lyrics, including the confidently sung chorus: "I'm just at the other end of your night/I'm always in and out of your life/Right down the middle of all your dreams/In your dreams" brings back to mind of of Nicks's best lyrics. The bridge features some of her most optimistic lyrics in years: "Are all those tears necessary/For all that pain that you carry/You just send those tears away/Come in out of the darkness/It's a beautiful day." Instead of having the subject of the vocal advice simply dry or wipe the tears away, figuratively treating the symptoms of a malady, she's telling him or her to banish the pain at its source.

She collaborated with Dave Stewart, who was best known as the other half of The Eurythmics. He co-produced the CD with veteran producer Glen Ballard. Nicks described the year she and Stewart worked together, co-writing
and having Stewart take several poems and turn them into songs, as the best year of her life, and it shows in the new material.

A previous description of In Your Dreams, even without hearing a majority of the songs was that disc may be "[Trouble in Shangri-la on steroids]." Like Trouble in Shangri-la, the CD sees Lindsey Buckingham make an appearance. Instead of adding additional guitar the way he did on the song "I Miss You", Buckingham plays guitar and sings harmonies with Nicks on "Soldier's Angel", which was inspired by her trips to Walter Reed Army Medical Center to visit wounded American soldiers from the U.S. wars in the Middle East. The song even features Nicks taking a stab at political commentary, describing the divide between left and right as "a war of words between worlds ... about what is wrong, 'bout what is righteous."

She also writes a hopeful tribute to New Orleans during which she describes Hurricane Katrina as "a perfect storm" in "The City of Dreams."

One thing Nicks is well known among her fans for is self referential lyrics, tying in lyrics from earlier songs to her newest songs. "Come in out of the the darkness" from "In Your Dreams" recalls the first title track she wrote, "Bella Donna." She also refers to the more obscure "Battle Of The Dragon" in "Soldier's Angel" by repeating the line "no one walks away from this battle." In the second hard rocker on the CD, "Ghosts Are Gone", Nicks refers to "a ghost through a fog", which appears in "Angel" off Fleetwood Mac's 1979 double album Tusk and in "Sweet Girl" off their 1997 comeback CD The Dance. It's a device that can be tiresome in some of her weaker material, but in her strongest songs, it ties themes together nicely.

Even if the CD doesn't bring Nicks back to the top of the charts or any Grammy nominations, the CD is already a success in one regard: It is a strong collection of songs that showcase Nicks at her best, and it shows that even though she's on the edge of 63, she still has the qualities that shot her to superstardom in the 1970s.

Way to put that in people's heads.

PenguinHead · #**227** 05-12-2011, 10:40 PM

I am absolutely loving reading these positive reviews. I can't ever remember a time in her entire career where she's gotten so much respect and appreciation. It's truly amazing!

michelej1 · #**228** 05-13-2011, 01:49 AM

Global Times, May 12, 2011
http://life.globaltimes.cn/entertain...05/654599.html

Return of the Mac: Stevie Nicks' new album follows 10-year hiatus By Michael Gold

That Stevie Nicks is one of the greatest singer-songwriters of the era belies the fact that her style, both musically and otherwise, has not evolved one iota since the 1970s heyday of her smashingly successful Fleetwood Mac.

And why should it? Very few artists wear the amber in which they've encased themselves quite so comfortably, or sell it to quite such legendary effect – which is why it's so reassuring that on In Your Dreams, Nicks' seventh solo studio album and her first in 10 years, the original witchy woman doesn't stray from the formula, delivering a reliably solid package of the same Midwestern-American aging ex-hippie white-girl fantasies she's been rolling out for nigh-on 40 years now.

For all her still-smooth skin, however, those fantasies hardly bear the same deliciously vindictive spirit of Nicks' younger days – where "Rhiannon," from the Mac's seminal 1975 self-titled release, cast spells and enchanted lovers, Dreams sets sail for a romantic "Italian Summer" and the "kingdom by the sea" of cool orchestral rocker "Annabel Lee."

Nicks hardly need apologize for mellowing in her old age, though if the cringe-inducing lyrics of "Cheaper than Free" ("What's more exciting than high fashion/High passion") are what we get from this new, nicer Stevie, I'll take the wailing banshee of "Gold Dust Woman" any day

Thankfully, "Cheaper than Free" represents the low point of an album full of the verbal spun silk that has become Nicks' trademark and that acolytes like Taylor Swift – roundly upstaged by Nicks at the 2010 Grammys – can only dream of.

Nicks' gift for commingling the magical with the mundane comes out full-force on plaintive thought-poem "New Orleans" (though one wonders if her paean to the hurricane-ravaged city isn't about five years overdue), where she riffs on brushing by Anne Rice amid a zoo of ghosts and vampires.

Reliably refined, Nicks still manages to rock out while making nearly every other diva of any era look positive gauche by comparison, especially on the Eagles-esque "Wide Sargasso Sea" and Mac-classic-styled "Ghosts Are Gone."

Exquisite enunciation, hooks as smooth as a Swiss watch, emotional expression as meticulous and well-controlled as a hydroelectric dam: On the surface, it all feels very much slick and corporate, or at least the work of an artist who knows her way around a focus group.

And yet, as her true fans will attest to, Nicks has never been anything but completely genuine, a near-perfect product of the exact same humdrum, whitewashed, vanilla-with-just-a-touch-of-spice middle American dream she's been pushing for decades.

TrueFaith77 · #**229** 05-13-2011, 05:50 AM

^^^^I am a member of rateyourmusic.com (I recommend everyone join). On a scale of 1/2-to-5 stars, 4 stars is what I've always rated Stevie solo studio albums. Now, with IYD, she has her first 4-1/2 star album (which translates as: "Great"). I'm starting to think that if only, as this critic suggests, had she NOT included "Cheaper than Free" (why did she do that when it's already on Dave's ablum????), the album would be worthy of the full 5--the first and only Mac solo album so honored in my catalogue.

BombaySapphire3 · #**230** 05-13-2011, 10:13 AM

kind of odd that the critic in that last review kept referring to Stevie and her music as "Midwestern" when for decades most in the press have referred to both as the epitome of California or more specifically Los Angeles ..my favorite quote which I think was from Pitchfork magazine when they were listing song about L.A. and chose "Gold Dust Woman" was "Stevie Nicks is to Los Angeles as Cleopatra was to Egypt"

jwd · #**231** 05-13-2011, 05:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Amlyn

In Your Dreams: A Triumphant Return for the Queen of Rock & Roll

Stevie Nicks's New CD, Her First in 10 Years, Shows Nicks in Fine Voice and Storytelling Form
Mike Sarzo, Yahoo! Contributor Network

http://www.associatedcontent.com/art...g2.html?cat=33

Stevie Nicks is back.

Anyone who has followed her ever since her commercially successful 2001 album Trouble in Shangri-la knows that Nicks has seldom been far from the road. After spending the bulk of 2002 in the studio with Fleetwood Mac to
record their last CD Say You Will, she and the Mac toured in 2003 and 2004 to support that album. One year later, she and Don Henley toured, then she continued the tour on her own. She toured solo again in 2007 and 2008, then toured with Fleetwood Mac in 2009. She even threw in a few shows in an August respite from recording.

Now, Nicks is back with In Your Dreams, her first studio album since Trouble in Shangri-la. That previous record saw Nicks debut at No. 5, which was the highest chart position for a Stevie Nicks solo disc since 1983's The Wild Heart, which featured one of her best-known songs, "Stand Back."

The new CD features Nicks's voice in top shape. She uses that instrument to great effect with some of the most passionate singing she's had in a very long time.She sings "Secret Love", the first single, and a song that just missed the cut on Rumour in a comfortable alto that keeps Nicks from scraping into male range.

The title track features inspired vocals and lyrics, including the confidently sung chorus: "I'm just at the other end of your night/I'm always in and out of your life/Right down the middle of all your dreams/In your dreams" brings back to mind of of Nicks's best lyrics. The bridge features some of her most optimistic lyrics in years: "Are all those tears necessary/For all that pain that you carry/You just send those tears away/Come in out of the darkness/It's a beautiful day." Instead of having the subject of the vocal advice simply dry or wipe the tears away, figuratively treating the symptoms of a malady, she's telling him or her to banish the pain at its source.

She collaborated with Dave Stewart, who was best known as the other half of The Eurythmics. He co-produced the CD with veteran producer Glen Ballard. Nicks described the year she and Stewart worked together, co-writing
and having Stewart take several poems and turn them into songs, as the best year of her life, and it shows in the new material.

A previous description of In Your Dreams, even without hearing a majority of the songs was that disc may be "[Trouble in Shangri-la on steroids]." Like Trouble in Shangri-la, the CD sees Lindsey Buckingham make an appearance. Instead of adding additional guitar the way he did on the song "I Miss You", Buckingham plays guitar and sings harmonies with Nicks on "Soldier's Angel", which was inspired by her trips to Walter Reed Army Medical Center to visit wounded American soldiers from the U.S. wars in the Middle East. The song even features Nicks taking a stab at political commentary, describing the divide between left and right as "a war of words between worlds ... about what is wrong, 'bout what is righteous."

She also writes a hopeful tribute to New Orleans during which she describes Hurricane Katrina as "a perfect storm" in "The City of Dreams."

One thing Nicks is well known among her fans for is self referential lyrics, tying in lyrics from earlier songs to her newest songs. "Come in out of the the darkness" from "In Your Dreams" recalls the first title track she wrote, "Bella Donna." She also refers to the more obscure "Battle Of The Dragon" in "Soldier's Angel" by repeating the line "no one walks away from this battle." In the second hard rocker on the CD, "Ghosts Are Gone", Nicks refers to "a ghost through a fog", which appears in "Angel" off Fleetwood Mac's 1979 double album Tusk and in "Sweet Girl" off their 1997 comeback CD The Dance. It's a device that can be tiresome in some of her weaker material, but in her strongest songs, it ties themes together nicely.

Even if the CD doesn't bring Nicks back to the top of the charts or any Grammy nominations, the CD is already a success in one regard: It is a strong collection of songs that showcase Nicks at her best, and it shows that even though she's on the edge of 63, she still has the qualities that shot her to superstardom in the 1970s.

This guy's obviously a fan of hers. He knows too much about the same lines in her different songs not to be.

Great review and I'll just have to say that I agree with it!!

BombaySapphire3 · #**232** 05-13-2011, 05:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jwd

This guy's obviously a fan of hers. He knows too much about the same lines in her different songs not to be.

Great review and I'll just have to say that I agree with it!!

I think it someone from this very board.

jwd · #**233** 05-13-2011, 05:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BombaySapphire3

I think it someone from this very board.

David?

TrueFaith77 · #**234** 05-13-2011, 06:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jwd

This guy's obviously a fan of hers. He knows too much about the same lines in her different songs not to be. Great review and I'll just have to say that I agree with it!!

Is there a thread with all the lyric recycling on IYD being catalogued and discussed?

Not Make Believe:
Isn't just that we cause each other such pain
Everywhere we go now, at home or at play
It hurts my self esteem, it hurts my everything
I am reeling... oh, it hurts my feelings
Sometimes it was heavenly (Sometimes it was heavenly)
Sometimes it was too heavy (Sometimes it was too heavy)
Sometimes it's just too much for me (Sometimes it's just too much for me)
Well I want to run away (Oh, well I want to run away)

Everybody Loves You (most underrated track on the new disc!):
She was so enchanted by his voice
She was so shaken by his words
His plan for her was just not possible
She had no words
Boy it isn't just that we cause each other such pain at home or on the stage
Sometimes it was heavenly... sometimes was too heavy
I looked the other way

jwd · #**235** 05-13-2011, 06:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TrueFaith77

Is there a thread with all the lyric recycling on IYD being catalogued and discussed?

Not Make Believe:
Isn't just that we cause each other such pain
Everywhere we go now, at home or at play
It hurts my self esteem, it hurts my everything
I am reeling... oh, it hurts my feelings
Sometimes it was heavenly (Sometimes it was heavenly)
Sometimes it was too heavy (Sometimes it was too heavy)
Sometimes it's just too much for me (Sometimes it's just too much for me)
Well I want to run away (Oh, well I want to run away)

Everybody Loves You (most underrated track on the new disc!):
She was so enchanted by his voice
She was so shaken by his words
His plan for her was just not possible
She had no words
Boy it isn't just that we cause each other such pain at home or on the stage
Sometimes it was heavenly... sometimes was too heavy
I looked the other way

I don't think so. But I think you've just started one here.

Damn, you guys are so good and just goes to show that you're really paying attention to what Stevie's sayin'. By the way "Everybody Loves You" was my biggest surprise on how it actually turned out, compared to the snippet we heard. GREAT SONG!!

SapphireSister · #**236** 05-13-2011, 06:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TrueFaith77

Is there a thread with all the lyric recycling on IYD being catalogued and discussed?

Not Make Believe:
Isn't just that we cause each other such pain
Everywhere we go now, at home or at play
It hurts my self esteem, it hurts my everything
I am reeling... oh, it hurts my feelings
Sometimes it was heavenly (Sometimes it was heavenly)
Sometimes it was too heavy (Sometimes it was too heavy)
Sometimes it's just too much for me (Sometimes it's just too much for me)
Well I want to run away (Oh, well I want to run away)

Everybody Loves You (most underrated track on the new disc!):
She was so enchanted by his voice
She was so shaken by his words
His plan for her was just not possible
She had no words
Boy it isn't just that we cause each other such pain at home or on the stage
Sometimes it was heavenly... sometimes was too heavy
I looked the other way

Oh I totally got that one being that NMB is a favorite...

michelej1 · #**237** 05-16-2011, 08:32 PM

No Ripcord, May 16, 2011 by Gary McGinley
http://www.noripcord.com/reviews/mus...ks/your-dreams

In the many years which have passed since Stevie Nicks left Fleetwood Mac, she has failed to match the commercial success or ubiquity of her former band’s music. Maybe it’s wise, then, that her first studio album in over a decade, In Your Dreams, doesn’t veer too far from the trademark FM radio rock which made Fleetwood Mac a household name and opens with a Rumours out-take, Secret Love, which has been dusted off and pulled into the 21stcentury.

In Your Dreams is helmed by production stalwarts Dave Stewart (of Eurythmics) and Glen Ballard who is probably best known for his work on Alanis Morisette’s world-slaying Jagged Little Pill. None of the material here is as angsty as Alanis or as ear catching as the Eurythmics, but that’s not to say that it’s all bad.

New Orleans is a touching ode to the birthplace of jazz which shows that her bohemian lyrics are still as affecting as ever, and she channels the current vampire craze adequately on the predictably titled MoonLight (A Vampire’s Dream). One of the more robust tracks, Annabel Lee, is based on a 19thcentury poem by Edgar Allan Poe; the storytelling lyrics about a love that lasts beyond the grave and an arrangement which slips into classical mode during the middle of the song are a perfect match for her gypsy chanteuse image. While In Your Dreams has some highs there are also several undoubted lows which include the rollicking country rock of the title track - more dated than it is catchy - and Wide Sargosso Sea which meanders in search of a direction - a fate which befalls many of these songs.

The rustic beauty and sweeping string arrangement of Italian Summer gives the album its strongest track. It’s a shame that it appears 12 songs into the track listing, by which time many listeners may have already lost interest. Over the course of this slightly bloated track listing there is too much focus on the soft rock element of her sound and this which works to the detriment of her fascinating lyrics and bewitching theatrics. This album may have been more engaging if she had pushed beyond the limits imposed by her brand to explore new territory instead trying to faithfully retread past glories. Fleetwood Mac plan to reform in 2012 and, judging by many of these tracks, that’s probably for the best. Stevie Nicks is yet to deliver a solo album to match her legendary status.

michelej1 · #**238** 05-19-2011, 11:56 AM

Here, Canada East.com
http://herenb.canadaeast.com/music/article/1407672

Stevie Nicks' voice on In Your Dreams is husky, approaching a rasp, and her songs are tinged with deep sadness. She easily moves between country, blues and pop, and confidently mixes them together. Mick Fleetwood contributes drums and Lindsay Buckingham vocals. The recording's standout song for me is New Orleans. It's grand and a bit faded-sounding; a captivating piece of song writing.

-Charles Mandel

SapphireSister · #**239** 05-19-2011, 12:06 PM

I so love reading these, thanks for posting Michele!

markolas · #**240** 05-19-2011, 12:07 PM

Thank heaven there's nothing on IYD that sounds like Alanis Morrissette. I always thought her music was awful. I think the reason I can't stand most music critics is that they don't seem to be able to talk about the music without comparing it to something else ("produced by Dave Stewart, but doesn't sound like Eurythmics," "reminiscent of Fleetwood Mac's radio rock," "solo work not as good as Fleetwood Mac"). The constant name-dropping of other artists is really tiresome.