IYD Press Reviews & Discussion

[michelej1]

Boston.com, May 9, 2011

http://www.boston.com/ae/music/cd_re...anteuse_nicks/
Dreamy tunes from chanteuse Nicks

When Stevie Nicks toured with Rod Stewart recently, she favored her biggest solo and Fleetwood Mac hits, playing only one tune from this, her first new album in a decade. She could easily have played a couple more, as “In Your Dreams’’ is a solid effort, chock-full of the things that Nicks’s fans have come to enjoy about their twirling, dusky-voiced, mystically inclined chanteuse.

With help from producers Dave Stewart of Eurythmics — who co-wrote seven songs as well — and Glen Ballard, Nicks sings of big loves and losses and sprinkles them with her enchanted glitter of optimism, melancholy, ecstasy, and regret.

“Wide Sargasso Sea’’ is as expansive as the novel from which it takes its inspiration, as Nicks mixes up warm acoustic strumming, twinkling keys, and a great shock of electric guitar rock riffery from longtime musical companion Waddy Wachtel.

Old flame and Mac bandmate Lindsey Buckingham drops by to add harmonies and guitar to the emotional ballad “Soldier’s Angel.’’ She longs for Bourbon Street on “New Orleans,’’ a haunted track that is simultaneously solemn and celebratory. And she remembers with a palpable bittersweetness a love that wasn’t meant to be on the tender “For What It’s Worth.’’

As usual, she also rocks a little, picking up the pace and intensity on the title track and the spectral musings of “Ghosts Are Gone.’’

If she occasionally veers into territory too gauzy or fantastical for some — as on the “New Moon’’-inspired “Moonlight (A Vampire’s Dream)’’ or the long-ago-far-away fairy tale of the maiden “Annabel Lee’’ — her inimitable, throaty purr keeps things grounded. SARAH RODMAN


ESSENTIAL “For What It’s Worth’’

[BombaySapphire3]

Yet another review that singles out "For What It's Worth "as the essential track on the album.I'm just not quite getting the mindset or taste of anyone who professes to be a Stevie Nicks fan and cannot see the beauty and poignancy of this song.

[Jondalar]

Originally Posted by BombaySapphire3

Yet another review that singles out "For What It's Worth "as the essential track on the album.I'm just not quite getting the mindset or taste of anyone who professes to be a Stevie Nicks fan and cannot see the beauty and poignancy of this song.

I haven't seen any reviews where people really hated the song, just some reviews where people said it was out of place.

[BombaySapphire3]

Originally Posted by Jondalar

I haven't seen any reviews where people really hated the song, just some reviews where people said it was out of place.

Well one that said incredibly that the song "adds nothing to the album" but they are primarily a Lindsey fan I believe .....so.

[jeffd8382]

Originally Posted by BombaySapphire3

Yet another review that singles out "For What It's Worth "as the essential track on the album.I'm just not quite getting the mindset or taste of anyone who professes to be a Stevie Nicks fan and cannot see the beauty and poignancy of this song.

It's funny.. I was just writing about "For What It's Worth" in another thread on here. I am pleased to report that I now really like this song. It took me awhile though... it really baffled me why I didn't take to the song since I really liked the production on it (and the guitar riff). It was the chorus that just didn't captivate me (the one note melody of the first line of the verses kinda bugged me a bit)... but the chorus felt like a bridge of the song that just didn't go anywhere initially. But I'm probably in the minority of Stevie fans who don't care much about the meaning of songs (universally.. not just hers lol). Music to me is all about what the music itself conveys emotionally (there are maybe a few rare exceptions for me as far as lyrics go)... this is why I equally enjoy instrumental music and music in foreign languages that I don't understand. Strangely enough, though, I had to force myself to read the lyrics while listening to this song... then it finally clicked. I think my mind also decided finally that the chorus WAS the chorus of the song... and it is catchy when you're used to it (or when I became used to it).

I do agree, however, I would have liked to see this song a little later in the album and am not too fond of the flow following "Secret Love". I do really like the sound of "Wide Sargasso Sea" following "Secret Love" (especially if there was almost zero silence between the sudden end of SL and the first note of WSS)... sorta reminiscent of "TISL" into "Candlebright". Oh well... still love the overall flow of the album.

[Jondalar]

Originally Posted by BombaySapphire3

Well one that said incredibly that the song "adds nothing to the album" but they are primarily a Lindsey fan I believe .....so.

For What It's Worth doesn't have the same change up as the other songs. Most of the other songs change direction or have different layers and are musically deep. FWIW is pretty and poignant, and It's emotionally deep. It has a different feel. t's just very straightforward; no change up. I look at Landslide as describing her whole life at the time and I look at FWIW as describing an incident in her life. And the song does feel like a very power incident, but not grand like Landslide.

[Livia]

NICKS OF TIME: A bad case of the flu kept Stevie Nicks from the Borgata last weekend. Still, nothing should keep fans from "In Your Dreams" (Reprise, A-), Nicks' first new album in a decade, and well worth the wait. With the likes of Dave Stewart (of Eurythmics) and Glen Ballard offering writing/production assistance, and L.A.'s most seasoned sidemen sitting in, the set fine-tunes Nicks' time-honored "I'm a difficult loner who'll screw with your head" narratives. She also pays poignant homage (with ex-spouse and Fleetwood Mac mate Lindsey Buckingham) to fallen war heroes on "Soldier's Angel" and to favorite getaways ("New Orleans" and "Italian Summer"). And Nicks draws another line to old-world folk with her rockin' cover of "Annabel Lee."

Read more: http://www.philly.com/philly/enterta...#ixzz1LyPGPENQ

[tabruns]

Originally Posted by Livia

NICKS OF TIME: A bad case of the flu kept Stevie Nicks from the Borgata last weekend. Still, nothing should keep fans from "In Your Dreams" (Reprise, A-), Nicks' first new album in a decade, and well worth the wait. With the likes of Dave Stewart (of Eurythmics) and Glen Ballard offering writing/production assistance, and L.A.'s most seasoned sidemen sitting in, the set fine-tunes Nicks' time-honored "I'm a difficult loner who'll screw with your head" narratives. She also pays poignant homage (with ex-spouse and Fleetwood Mac mate Lindsey Buckingham) to fallen war heroes on "Soldier's Angel" and to favorite getaways ("New Orleans" and "Italian Summer"). And Nicks draws another line to old-world folk with her rockin' cover of "Annabel Lee."

Read more: http://www.philly.com/philly/enterta...#ixzz1LyPGPENQ

"cover"? "Annabel Lee" isn't a cover song! LOL

[fumidesigns]

Originally Posted by tabruns

"cover"? "Annabel Lee" isn't a cover song! LOL

i was just saying that! wtf?! lol!

[michelej1]

Originally Posted by tabruns

"cover"? "Annabel Lee" isn't a cover song! LOL

Why my grandmother used to listen to Edgar Alan Poe warble that tune on her Victrola.

Poe would fill himself up with opium and liquor, grab a mic and have at it. Michele

[BombaySapphire3]

Originally Posted by tabruns

"cover"? "Annabel Lee" isn't a cover song! LOL

Isn't exactly "Old World " either .Poe was American born.

[BombaySapphire3]

uh oh here's another one.........In .Your Dreams D+
by Steven Hyden May 10, 2011
Stevie Nicks


this from the A.V. club

On the cover of In Your Dreams, Stevie Nicks presents herself as many fans likely envision her in their fantasies: dressed in a witchy black dress, standing next to a dreamy white steed, and bathed in a sunny glow from deep inside a magical-looking forest. But contrary to her mystical image and the title of one of her most famous songs, Nicks at her best traffics in hard-won wisdom and scrappy resilience, not dreams. That makes the moony childishness of In Your Dreams even more unbecoming for a 62-year-old survivor who’s presumably done a lot more living and learning since 2001’s Trouble In Shangri-La than this silly album suggests.
Nicks once wrote unflinchingly about the pains and pleasures of romantic relationships; on Dreams, she offers the plainly awful “Cheaper Than Free,” a lumbering country-tinged love song containing unintentional laughers like “more exciting than high fashion / high passion” and “What’s deeper than a deep well? / The love into which I fell.” On “New Orleans,” Nicks sounds as clueless about the outside world as she does about matters of the heart, becoming increasingly unmoored from a real-world depiction of the city as she sings about the merits of Bourbon Street, the French Quarter, beads, feathers and lace, and brushing up against author Anne Rice. Tellingly, Nicks is more engaged in the pretend-time fantasylands of “Moonlight (A Vampire’s Dream)”—inspired, yes, by the Stephenie Meyer books—and “Wide Sargasso Sea,” which is more of a book report on the Jean Rhys novel than a cogent musical interpretation.
For all the juvenilia of the songwriting, the production on In Your Dreams is an oldster’s abomination, lacquering dated MOR bombast over intermittently inspired melodies that wilt on impact. “Secret Love,” a leftover from the Rumours days, might have shined brighter in more naturalistic environs; as it is, like the rest of Dreams, it’s a disappointment coming from a woman who seemed
a lot more grown up back in her late twenties.

[Amlyn]

Originally Posted by Livia

NICKS OF TIME: A bad case of the flu kept Stevie Nicks from the Borgata last weekend. Still, nothing should keep fans from "In Your Dreams" (Reprise, A-), Nicks' first new album in a decade, and well worth the wait. With the likes of Dave Stewart (of Eurythmics) and Glen Ballard offering writing/production assistance, and L.A.'s most seasoned sidemen sitting in, the set fine-tunes Nicks' time-honored "I'm a difficult loner who'll screw with your head" narratives. She also pays poignant homage (with ex-spouse and Fleetwood Mac mate Lindsey Buckingham) to fallen war heroes on "Soldier's Angel" and to favorite getaways ("New Orleans" and "Italian Summer"). And Nicks draws another line to old-world folk with her rockin' cover of "Annabel Lee."

Read more: http://www.philly.com/philly/enterta...#ixzz1LyPGPENQ

Well, it was like they were married...so they say.

[TrueFaith77]

Originally Posted by BombaySapphire3

uh oh here's another one.........In .Your Dreams D+
by Steven Hyden May 10, 2011
Stevie Nicks


this from the A.V. club

On the cover of In Your Dreams, Stevie Nicks presents herself as many fans likely envision her in their fantasies: dressed in a witchy black dress, standing next to a dreamy white steed, and bathed in a sunny glow from deep inside a magical-looking forest. But contrary to her mystical image and the title of one of her most famous songs, Nicks at her best traffics in hard-won wisdom and scrappy resilience, not dreams. That makes the moony childishness of In Your Dreams even more unbecoming for a 62-year-old survivor who’s presumably done a lot more living and learning since 2001’s Trouble In Shangri-La than this silly album suggests.
Nicks once wrote unflinchingly about the pains and pleasures of romantic relationships; on Dreams, she offers the plainly awful “Cheaper Than Free,” a lumbering country-tinged love song containing unintentional laughers like “more exciting than high fashion / high passion” and “What’s deeper than a deep well? / The love into which I fell.” On “New Orleans,” Nicks sounds as clueless about the outside world as she does about matters of the heart, becoming increasingly unmoored from a real-world depiction of the city as she sings about the merits of Bourbon Street, the French Quarter, beads, feathers and lace, and brushing up against author Anne Rice. Tellingly, Nicks is more engaged in the pretend-time fantasylands of “Moonlight (A Vampire’s Dream)”—inspired, yes, by the Stephenie Meyer books—and “Wide Sargasso Sea,” which is more of a book report on the Jean Rhys novel than a cogent musical interpretation.
For all the juvenilia of the songwriting, the production on In Your Dreams is an oldster’s abomination, lacquering dated MOR bombast over intermittently inspired melodies that wilt on impact. “Secret Love,” a leftover from the Rumours days, might have shined brighter in more naturalistic environs; as it is, like the rest of Dreams, it’s a disappointment coming from a woman who seemed
a lot more grown up back in her late twenties.

These people absolutely refuse to engage the album. Today, ruminating on the movement from New Orleans to Moonlight to Annabel Lee to Soldier's Angel, I was just floored at how sophisticated is Stevie's approach to Romance, culture, and patriotism on this album: indeed, finding the dreamlike thread that unites us all.

I'm not suggesting this one was aimed at me, but it's true that a number of the Onion arts critics hated me in college. Example: in a video contest, two of their critics rated my work a "0" on a scale of 1 to 10. It was below the alotted scale!!!!!! And one of their girlfriends fired me from the college paper.

[tabruns]

Exactly what "hard life" does the AV critic think Nicks should have been communicating on In Your Dreams? Frankly, I think In Your Dreams is a much *truer* chronicle of where she is in life....she spent the last year having a grand old time recording this album. She's wealthy, she's famous, she's in good health and she's now a good decade or more past her addictions. On In Your Dreams she talks about past relationships, her experience at Walter Reed, and her affection for New Orleans and Italy. She's being really true to herself.

It's like the writer made up some kind of "life of hard knocks" that Nicks supposedly lived the last 10 years but then failed to make a record about it.