Rolling Stone Magazine Album Reviews

[strandinthewind]

Originally Posted by David

How come you don't use the American Heritage Dictionary, 1st edition (1969)? "It's the only American dictionary I can countenance," said John Simon in his book "Paradigms Lost: Reflections on Literacy & Its Decline," published by Clarkson-Potter.

While that one certainly will do - I prefer hauling out my big red online dic.

"She loves you, she told me!" [/QUOTE]

Then she released you into the loving arms of Mick, who, when he can actually do so, thinks only somewhat fondly of you.

[SapphireSister]

"How can anyone so hip be so incredibly silly" Yep, that pretty much sums it up. They were tough on her but it takes a certain person to get Stevie Nicks and you guys know it. I've never expected critics to be fans of Stevie because I know it takes a certain "type" of person to understand where she is coming from.

I could give two ****s what the critics had to say although I did find a lot of it quite interesting and thought provoking regardless of whether of not I agreed with it. The one thing and the ONLY thing that matters to me about Stevie is that her music touches me in a way that no other person, place, or thing in this universe does and that's all it comes down to. There is no rhyme or reason or explanation for it, it just is! (wow, I'm sounding kind of airy fairy there myself, ehem). I welcome any criticisms/altering points of view because it will never change how her music has impacted my life and I like to hear other people's perspectives who don't seem to get it. In real life I'm quite analytical and logical so it seems a bit ironic that I am a fan of Stevie's music since so much of what she sings about makes little or no sense but that's part of my love affair with her and I think the same can be said for a lot of her fans. We're not all gypsies and street angels sitting in rooms with some lace and paper flowers on the Edge of Seventeen (but maybe somewhere out in the back of our minds we wish we were?).

Imperial Hotel the highlight of Rock a Little? Bwahahahahah

"Step-mother to an infant daughter"? At least get your facts straight.

"Stevie Nicks may have prefigured Madonna's and Prince's lace fetishes but the tart frankness of today's Top Ten market makes her seem a bit of a prude".

Hey I never thought about that the lace thing, so true! Madonna and Prince need to give her some props, for real. Oh and about being prude, I guess they missed her snorting lines in between takes of the I Can't Wait Video .

[David]

Originally Posted by SapphireSister

"How can anyone so hip be so incredibly silly" Yep, that pretty much sums it up. They were tough on her but it takes a certain person to get Stevie Nicks and you guys know it. I've never expected critics to be fans of Stevie because I know it takes a certain "type" of person to understand where she is coming from.

Stevie makes me feel both moist & dry.

She's really good.

Why don't you like Imperial Hotel? That's the song that really details her tailspin.

[SapphireSister]

Originally Posted by David

Stevie makes me feel both moist & dry.

Too much information but thanks for the visual!

She's really good.

And when she's good, she's very very good.

Why don't you like Imperial Hotel? That's the song that really details her tailspin.

It used to be my very least favorite song on RAL and the only one I did not like but I gave it another chance a few months back and discovered it's not as bad as I'd previously thought. The main thing I never liked about it was the music, simple as that. I normally don't like songs with that organ sound (there are exceptions however such as SDMHA) and it's very prominent in that song. Do you know the sound I'm talking about? It's an organ right? I tend not to like songs that have that which is odd because I love the synthesizer sound and they are both keyboard instruments.

I like it now alright, it has a very catchy beat but it doesn't touch me emotionally. If anything it's a fun, upbeat song but not very deep musically and not by any means the best song on the album IMO.

Tell me why you like it so much and how it "details her tailspin". I love new perspectives and I'm going to listen to it on the way home from work tonight in your honor.

[Jyqm]

I thought this article about the importance and purpose of criticism would make a good addition to this thread. David, I think you'll enjoy reading this:

http://www.popmatters.com/columns/jenkins/060420.shtml

[Johnny Stew]

Originally Posted by Jyqm

I thought this article about the importance and purpose of criticism would make a good addition to this thread.

Interesting article, Jyqm. Thanks for posting it.

I'd like to comment on this specific paragraph:

Perhaps the best criticism... surmounts its lowly parasitic status in order to become a (nearly) self-standing work of art in its own right. Far from seeing this as an exception to the rule, we should see it as the template for criticism proper (public and personal).

One of the biggest issues I have with rock critics, is that I've seen far too few genuinely thoughtful critics (I always cite our own David O. as the type of critic I respect), and far too many of the smug, "look how witty I am" variety.

One example that instantly comes to mind, is the one sentence review of 'Rock A Little' in Musician magazine, which basically said, "Yeah, rocks very little." That's that. End of story.
I'm sure anyone who dislikes Stevie, or enjoys pithy reviews, would get a kick out of it... but it told me absolutely nothing about the album. All it told me was that the critic was self-important and thought himself to be funny.

The same is true of the Entertainment Weekly review of 'Time,' which I have referenced on here before ("who gives a Tusk about a Fleetwood Mac album without Stevie Nicks").
Sure, it may have summed up a lot of people's feelings about that album... and I can chuckle at it (though I certainly don't agree with it)... but it told me absolutely nothing about the music contained therein.

I'm going to share one of my favorite reviews of a Stevie album. The critic's name is Robert Sheffield, but unfortunately I can't remember which magazine it was published in (hopefully someone else will recognize it). I was around 16 at the time, and back then I used to cut reviews and articles from various magazines in order to put them in a scrapbook... failing in many cases to note the publication. *slaps forehead*

Stevie Nicks
The Other Side Of The Mirror
Modern/Atlantic

The new solo LP from Fleetwood Mac siren Stevie Nicks is called The Other Side Of The Mirror, like in her "Gypsy" video a few years back. Remember, she was swishing her skirts, dancing in the mirror, and then out in the rain and then leading all these white-clad vestals through the forests of Beulah . . . videos were cool then. Yeah, maybe that mirror, and all those lyrics about white-winged doves and Welsh witches drowning in the sea of love were a bit much. But hey, Stevie's vision of adolescent desire was as vibrant and real as Billy Squier's, wasn't it? She wasn't all boring and "rock" minded. I was down with Stevie.
So this new album brings her back to the mirror--except the Other Side. Most of these songs take place in the wreckage of Stevie's old mythology. Like "Rooms On Fire," in which she tells her elfin love-twerp that she's actually known his "magic" much longer than she's known him, or "Alice," where the gypsies kick her out (presumably for not owning any pants). Then there's the beatific ballad "Ooh My Love." Stevie's sitting at the loom with her white-winged crone-muse behind "castle walls" of adolescent girl-fantasy. She's growing up, and the walls are crumbling down. And she isn't sure whether to mourn or not, because there's this guy standing outside waiting for her. Stevie spends the album in the rubble of her castle, making us guess about her reaction. She keeps her visions to herself.
What she gives to us is the music, and the buzz of her unique throat. There's nothing folkish about her tunes anymore--they churn on uplifting synth tracks like her 1983 hit "If Any Falls [sic]." She builds tension by pitting aggressively strummed one-chord riffs against each other, the way John Waite's "Missing You" or the original Velvet's "Femme Fatale" did.
On some tunes Stevie comes off as stiff, but for most of Mirror her vocals get by on their terse emotion. As her timbre gets drier, her phrasing gets only more precise--on "Alice" and "Juliet" she shifts between song and speech and hits just the note of personal fragmentation the melodies are aching to reach. Her consistently soulful brogue, while not as nimble as it used to be, earns the mythic status she's always demanded. Stevie slurs like Mrs. Butterworth or trills like the Vermont Maid, but it's always sticky stuff.

--Robert Sheffield

[Janis_no1]

I haven't read any of this thread... i just read this page and wanted to say that Stew that was a cool review.. someone certainly took the time on that one which was great!! I love to read anything or hear anything the media has to say in regards to my dear FM or SN... though if its not positive i admitedly am disappointed... guess coz i want the world to see what i see, and hear what i hear.

True i agree that Stevie's words rarely make sense to me, though i truly believe what Christine MCView said i think on the rumours interview dvd from the late 90's about how she didn't know what stevie was on about half the time, but that it didn't matter coz it sounded so good. I who have stevie threaded in my heart dont know what every lyric of most of her songs are about, yet the way she sings them to me needs no explanation...

[brisharry]

thats why she dedicated a song to you jayne a stevie thrad in your heart , we understand

[brisharry]

thread even

[Jyqm]

Originally Posted by Johnny Stew

Interesting article, Jyqm. Thanks for posting it.

I'd like to comment on this specific paragraph:One of the biggest issues I have with rock critics, is that I've seen far too few genuinely thoughtful critics (I always cite our own David O. as the type of critic I respect), and far too many of the smug, "look how witty I am" variety.

One example that instantly comes to mind, is the one sentence review of 'Rock A Little' in Musician magazine, which basically said, "Yeah, rocks very little." That's that. End of story.
I'm sure anyone who dislikes Stevie, or enjoys pithy reviews, would get a kick out of it... but it told me absolutely nothing about the album. All it told me was that the critic was self-important and thought himself to be funny.

The same is true of the Entertainment Weekly review of 'Time,' which I have referenced on here before ("who gives a Tusk about a Fleetwood Mac album without Stevie Nicks").
Sure, it may have summed up a lot of people's feelings about that album... and I can chuckle at it (though I certainly don't agree with it)... but it told me absolutely nothing about the music contained therein.

Of course, when magazines want to cram as many album reviews in as they can for whatever noble reasons they may have, this is the kind of crap you get. A two- or three-sentence music review is absolutely useless to everyone, no matter what it says.

Another big problem with a lot of music criticism these days, which the author of the PopMatters article doesn't address, is that too many people (critics and readers alike) view criticism as nothing more than a consumer guide. They think that a critic's job is to tell the public whether an album is worth buying or not. Admittedly, it's a tempting view to buy into, especially when there's so much music out there and no one has time to listen to it all. We want to know which albums are worth our time. But it's this kind of attitude that tends to lead to bland, boring criticism, articles that are either adoring or snarky. Too few critics care about offering an interpretation or explication of an album, as opposed to merely saying whether they liked or not, and whether you should like it too.

Fortunately, there are a number of bastions where good criticism still exists, mostly online. PopMatters being one of those.

[David]

Originally Posted by Janis_no1

True i agree that Stevie's words rarely make sense to me, though i truly believe what Christine MCView said i think on the rumours interview dvd from the late 90's about how she didn't know what stevie was on about half the time, but that it didn't matter coz it sounded so good. I who have stevie threaded in my heart dont know what every lyric of most of her songs are about, yet the way she sings them to me needs no explanation...

I don't think the reviewers we've been reading are criticizing stevie because they can't figure out who or what her referents are (the tenors of her metaphors, in I.A. Richards' words). I think that's a reduction of their typical position. I think what they're saying is that stevie's lyrics are poorly formed, that the personal nature of her writing in conjunction with her (in their view) crippled & crippling execution subsumes or even subverts the universality of her intent. In other words, they're making a critique of formalism insofar as she wields descriptors. They're attacking her craft, not her vision (for the most part). You can agree or disagree with them, but I don't think it's accurate to pin their position as being akin to a child watching & being confused by, say, a Tarkovsky film.

Certainly no critic of any ability would call--or has called--for complete clarity in poetic language, whether it's Stevie's songs or Mallarme's sonnets or anything else. That would be inane or insane or both.

[Janis_no1]

Originally Posted by David

I don't think the reviewers we've been reading are criticizing stevie because they can't figure out who or what her referents are (the tenors of her metaphors, in I.A. Richards' words). I think that's a reduction of their typical position. I think what they're saying is that stevie's lyrics are poorly formed, that the personal nature of her writing in conjunction with her (in their view) crippled & crippling execution subsumes or even subverts the universality of her intent. In other words, they're making a critique of formalism insofar as she wields descriptors. They're attacking her craft, not her vision (for the most part). You can agree or disagree with them, but I don't think it's accurate to pin their position as being akin to a child watching & being confused by, say, a Tarkovsky film.

Certainly no critic of any ability would call--or has called--for complete clarity in poetic language, whether it's Stevie's songs or Mallarme's sonnets or anything else. That would be inane or insane or both.

david.... im sorry but there's just too many big words for a simpleton like me to understand..... especially on a monday morning at work after a big weekend...

[Janis_no1]

Originally Posted by brisharry

thats why she dedicated a song to you jayne a stevie thrad in your heart , we understand

oh harry.....

hang on... was that a sweet comment or a funny at my expense.... coz if its a funny it'll take me another few weeks to get it

[David]

Originally Posted by Janis_no1

david.... im sorry but there's just too many big words for a simpleton like me to understand..... especially on a monday morning at work after a big weekend...

I'll see if I can explain it better later; I need to relax right now.

for you grammar lovers, can you spot the solecism in the sentence above?

[Janis_no1]

Originally Posted by David

I'll see if I can explain it better later; I need to relax right now.

for you grammar lovers, can you spot the solecism in the sentence above?

yes relax right now... my brain would be hurting after doing all that too!!

I could look 90% of it up in a dictionary but that would take me an hour! I dont even know what "solecism....thingemeebob" is either!!