Leather and lace: how Stevie Nicks created a new musical language

[Macfan4life]

The photo insert was cool but the back cover fascinated me more. Her giant brown eyes in a daze. It was beautiful, mystical, bold, and a bit spooky all rolled into one. It was the dead stare that was captivating.
The bedroom pose on the insert was cool. I imagined it was a glimpse inside Stevie's house and it was. Cool to see a small shot of her bed. Years later I would discover her bathroom door on John Stewart's album.
The music, its top notch. I consider Bella Donna one of the best albums of the 1980s. The lyrics are tapestry. Its a bit of everything in every song.....a woman scorned....a woman heart broken.....a woman in love..... a woman in a fast paced life...…… Each song builds on the other one. No filler No padding.
I was surprised to hear Jimmy think the album was good but no one would hear it because there were no singles. Really? Leather and Lace and Edge would still have charted without SDMHA. But I suppose looking back, it was not a pop album which is probably what Jimmy meant. Its so good it may not get top 40 airplay. This is what I hated about RAL. The songs I love from the RAL era were bounced from the album. Even the Nightmare was scaled back and the worst version made the album. Too much emphasis was made to make it a pure pop album to be successful. That is when Stevie jumped the shark and it took awhile to get her game back. Everything that made Bella Donna so magical was lost in 5 years.