25 years of "Trouble In Shangri-La"

[sorcerer999]

Tomorrow is the 25th Anniversary of "Trouble In Shangri-La"! How do we all feel about this album 25 years later, in regard to where it fits in her discography? This was Stevie's big "come back" solo record after the flop that was "Street Angel" and after the hugely successful Fleetwood Mac reunion in '97 and the solo "Enchanted" tour in '98.

I remember waiting in line at Tower Records right before midnight on 4/30 going into 5/1. Sometimes it seems like it was just yesterday. Other times, it seems so far away, especially when you factor in all the major world events that have happened in between then and now.

I wore the HELL out of that record for at least three years after it was released. And after that, a lot of the songs were still in heavy rotation within my various mix tapes for another 6 or 7 years. For the past 10 to 15 years, though, I have only really listened to the whole of it, start to finish, maybe once a year - always in mid December - it's become a bit of a yearly tradition to listen to all of it when I do all my Christmas wrapping. The title track and the vault songs (Candlebright, Sorcerer and Planets) are all still pretty solid, as well as Fall From Grace. But really, that's pretty much it for me.

I used to enjoy Bombay Sapphires and Love Is quite a bit back in the day, but ever since I heard the original, far superior piano demo of Love Is, I just can't enjoy the studio version as much. Same for Bombay - the original version that made it on the acetate version of the record before it was re-recorded with Macy Gray is also so much better. They should have just left that one "as is".

I remember loving the visual imagery of the "Every Day" video with the swans, even though I wasn't a huge fan of the song.

"Sorcerer", a song that I STILL love and adore to this day (hence my screen name) had an awesome video, but it was a bummer that they used the poorly edited "single version" instead of the whole song. All those painfully obvious/jumpy edits are a distraction, in my opinion.

I was bummed there wasn't a video for "Planets", because if ANY song on that album deserved a trippy, witchy video, it was that one. A total missed opportunity. I was happy that one of the club mixes went to number one on the dance charts, though.

I thought the tour was great. I saw her three times - once before 9/11 and twice after.

I also feel that, had 9/11 not happened, maybe we would have gotten a longer US tour - she had also planned on touring overseas but of course that wasn't going to happen after the tragedy in NYC and going into a war. Had it not happened, maybe the album promotion would have gone on a little bit longer as well with another music video or two. Who knows?

Nothing has ever topped the "Fab Four" solo albums from the 80's for me, and I still really enjoy quite a lot of songs from "In Your Dreams" and "24 Karat Gold" as well, so I guess "TISL" ranks at number seven for me these days, just one slot above "Street Angel". And while it doesn't sound as dated as "The Other Side of the Mirror", it still possesses a lackluster "adult contemporary" quality within half the songs on the record that just don't evoke that atmospheric "Stevie Nicks" aesthetic that the 80's albums did, regardless of whether some of those earlier tracks sound more antiquated in this day and age. And the worst songs on "TISL" really are the worst of the worst on any Stevie solo album in my opinion - both lyrically and musically. "Love Changes", "I Miss You", "Every Day" and I won't even go into "That Made Me Stronger". LOL

Anyway, what are your thoughts on this one now that a quarter of a century has passed? I know this whole site and specifically this forum is drastically different than it was when I was frequenting it and posting regularly 10 to 15 years ago and has become more of a "let's sh*t on Stevie" space, so please, if you're going to reply, be respectful. Thanks!