Street Angel and In Your Dreams - A Comparison

[tabruns]

Originally Posted by markolas

Funny you should say that...I've decided that Friday when I go back to work (where I'll be doing data entry for 10 hours), I'm going to listen to all of Stevie's solo albums starting with BD. Now, really, I don't have huge problems (except for a couple of songs on TWH that can easily be swapped out) with any of them until I get to Street Angel. I've played with the running order a couple of times, but haven't been really satisfied - I'm giving it another try now, as a matter of fact.

One major issue with SA is that there are 3 songs on the album that are absolute torture for me to sit through. And there aren't really many songs I can swap them out with - there's Thousand Days, which I love, then the Japan bonus tracks (Inspiration & God's Garden) which I've never been wild about, but that I can tolerate better than UC & MLWCYM. And I like (but don't love) If You Were My Love from the master mixes.

So I'm gonna see how this one pans out:

1. Blue Denim
2. Greta
3. Street Angel
4. Docklands
5. Listen to the Rain
6. Destiny
7. If You Were My Love
8. Thousand Days
9. Love Is Like a River
10. Rose Garden
11. Just Like a Woman
12. Kick It
13. Inspiration

Other configurations are welcomed - you can PM me if you want, so as not to derail the thread any further.

I do the exact same thing. I remove songs that I just don't like at all and try to find replacements for them.

Technically, we should really be listening to all 7 albums just as they are and then judge from there. You can't really say "Oh Street Angel isn't a bad album after all!" if you've replaced about half of it with other songs.

[markolas]

Originally Posted by tabruns

Technically, we should really be listening to all 7 albums just as they are and then judge from there. You can't really say "Oh Street Angel isn't a bad album after all!" if you've replaced about half of it with other songs.

I'm sorry, I'm just not going to sit through Unconditional Love and Maybe Love Will Change Your Mind - they'd be great to listen to over & over if I had like 2 weeks to live, since they'd make those 2 weeks seem so much longer.

On the other hand, they'd make it more painful than it probably already would be, so...meh.

[SapphireSister]

I haven't read your post yet but I've been thinking the exact same thing over the last few days!! Thank you so much for having the guts to say it. Now, back to reading your post.

[Bandon]

Originally Posted by mylittledemon

I wouldn't really compare the two records... but that's an interesting way to put it.

I agree, as well with the quote.

My heart sank when I first listened to Street Angel. IYD is a totally different experience.

[bluefox4000]

For me IYD....Has been a Stevie Reawakening on my part. SA..was Just another Stevie album. And at the Time that was not a good thing

Mick

[-Lillith-]

There are cool songs on Street Angel but i think the whole Album IYD has a much better context and more really great songs. I somehow prefer it as a Collection.

[StandbackStevie]

Originally Posted by WideSargassoSea

I realize this might be an unpopular opinion, but it's been buzzing around in my head since I first heard the In Your Dreams stream last week. People keep comparing Trouble In Shangri-La to its successor in the Stevie catalog, and I've enjoyed those debates...

...however, I think In Your Dreams reminds me the most of Street Angel.

*cue gasps from The Ledge*

Now, hear me out:

"For What It's Worth" was the first song I listened to from the new LP, and I kept going back to it because it reminded me of something else Stevie had done. It plagued me for a few days until my iPod was on shuffle and "Rose Garden" came on. I hadn't listened to that song all the way through in about five years, but I could not help but think it was "For What It's Worth's" sonic older cousin. The folksy, sing-songy sweetness is the selling point of both tracks.

This of course sent me into Stevie overdrive and I came up with the following comparisons in addition to the above:

1) "In Your Dreams" is this album's "Blue Denim": the rocking, Stevie-penned song that should have been the first single. (No offense to "Secret Love;" some offense to "Maybe Love Will Change Your Mind" )

2) The opening of "Street Angel" is equally as jarring coming out of "Greta" as "Soldier's Angel" is coming out of "Annabel Lee" (or "My Heart," depending on your version). Lindsey is a far more effective harmonic foil for Stevie than David Crosby, but...both songs are coincidentally about angels, albeit of different kinds, and feature prominent male vocals.

3) "Moonlight" incorporates the majority of "Lady From The Mountains," one of the most beloved Stevie demos/outtakes, then expands upon the theme to great success. "Love Is Like a River" does similarly (to a lesser extent) with "I Call You Missing" and...well, let's just say I prefer my muddy demo of the latter. ** See also: the wholesale lyric borrowing of "Destiny"/"Enchanted."

4) The production of both albums is very bright. I love Trouble In Shangri-La because it has that distinct "heavy yet polished"/John Shanks/1999-2000 sound. Street Angel and In Your Dreams come from entirely different "timespaces" (to coin a phrase), but they both sound timeless, bright, airy and more...acoustic, for a lack of a better word.

I'm sure if Stevie saw this post, she'd send me to a psychiatrist for a heavy dose of Klonopin, but I had to point it out. In Your Dreams is leagues greater than Street Angel simply because there are no mentions of "laundromats" or "forgotten chimpanzees," and it's quickly giving Rock A Little a run for its money as my #2 favorite Stevie album of all time.

I was almost thinking the same thing I was think it was a cross between The Otherside of the Mirror and Street Angel combined into one album and walla you got a masterpiece i love all of Stevie's albums myself.

[PenguinHead]

Originally Posted by Jondalar

I can see some comparisons. The thing about IYD is it seems like it is made up of songs that Stevie should of already sang earlier in her career. Good songs.

Better late than never!

[SpyNote]

I think "For What It's Worth" sounds just like "Rose Garden," too. Definitely its twin sister. "Soldier's Angel" reminds me of "Street Angel," which isn't a great thing to me. It's just so dreary and hard to listen to.

[JeremyGloff]

It was actually this thread that prompted me to finally sign up as a member!

I thought THE SAME THING! You know what song made me think "Street Angel"?? -- the new version of "My Heart" is SO "Street Angel-ish" to me...

especially the "ooh yeahs" in the middle...that reminds me of the "I'm Lonely I'm lonely" part in "Kick It" ---

I love STREET ANGEL though.

[mikephxaz]

Originally Posted by tabruns

Meh, the only comparison I hear is that neither album sounds really slickly produced. I'd like to say I love Street Angel but I just never have. To me it's an album of songs that didn't make the cut from earlier Nicks albums and as I've said before it sounds very pedestrian to me. The mystical/magical/weirdness that is Nicks at her best is completely absent on Street Angel. The songs on In Your Dreams are MUCH better written, better sung and better produced.

I think its great that some people love it, but for me Behind The Mask/Street Angel really were the nadir of her career and creativity due to the Klonopin haze.

Perfectly said!! You nailed it!

[louielouie2000]

Originally Posted by JeremyGloff

I love STREET ANGEL though.

You joined to profess your love of Street Angel? I like you already!!

[dreamer78]

Thank God some else thought of Street angel !!!
I thought it too . Alot of the new songs remeinded me of it
Soldiers Angel ----->Street Angel
I heard someone say Take Bella Donna sprinkle it with Trouble in shangrila and Get in your Dreams i think its take trouble in shangrila sprinkle it with street angel and get In Your Dreams !!! the new album is amazing and i always loved Street Angel
the only thing that i thought was odd on it was" Docklands" sister says" brush your hair"!

[HighPassion]

I'm one of the few who actually loves Street Angel. I like it a lot better than Rock a Little and Other Side of the Mirror. There were a couple songs on it I didn't care for, but overall it seemed more mystical (to me). Especially with songs like "Street Angel" and "Greta" and "Rose Garden".

Although, I do think the mixes on Enchanted of the songs are far better. And those are identical to those master mix bootlegs of what Street Angel was supposed to be...

The only crazy thing I think happened about that album era is them scrapping those awesome versions to the awkward ones that came on the final product. I really don't care for the album version of Rose Garden - Enchanted was WAY better.


....Btw I still haven't recieved my copy of In Your Dreams eyt. But this makes me more excited to hear it!!

[darklinensuit]

Originally Posted by HighPassion

Although, I do think the mixes on Enchanted of the songs are far better. And those are identical to those master mix bootlegs of what Street Angel was supposed to be...

A bit of a tangent here, but since you opened the door...
I much prefer the SA versions to the Enchanted ones. "Destiny" is my favorite song on SA, but the Enchanted version is one of the things that makes me never listen to Disc 2. And I can't stand the extra stuff at the start of "Blue Denim" or in the middle of "Rose Garden".

- Jake