The enchantress returns... and the magic's still there
Artiste: Stevie Nicks
Nationality: American
Album: In your dreams
Year: 2011
Label: Reprise
Genre: Rock
Tracks:
Secret love
For what it's worth
In your dreams
Wide Sargasso Sea
New Orleans
Moonlight (A vampire's dream)
Annabel Lee
Soldier's angel
Everybody loves you
Ghosts are gone
You may be the one
Italian summer
Cheaper than free
Chronological position: Seventh album
Familiarity: “Bella donna”, “The wild heart”, “Rock a little”, “The other side of the mirror”
Initial impression: Yeah! Stevie is BACK!
Best track(s):For what it's worth, In your dreams, Moonlight (A vampire's dream), Soldier's angel, Italian summer
Worst track(s):Eh, yeah...
Comments: I've always been a big fan of Stevie, ever since her Fleetwood Mac days, and while I wouldn't say all her albums were completely without their duff tracks, each of them nevertheless has a special place in my heart, even if I haven't heard the two prior to this, her latest. Stevie has a way of singing directly to your heart and your soul, and her appeal does not diminish --- at least, for me --- with the passage of time and as age begins to advance on her. The album sleeve couldn't be more typical Stevie: all that's missing is a horn in the horse's forehead to make it a unicorn. She's not known for rushing out albums though: after the initial flurry of four albums between 1981 and 1989, it was five years before her fifth album, and seven to the one after that, with a staggering ten years elapsing between 2001's “Trouble in Shangri-La” and the release of this album.
Stevie's solo albums have always contained a healthy dose of country and folk lodged firmly within the rock, and this is no exception, with tracks like
For what it's worth and the closer
Cheaper than free allowing Mike Campbell to show his talent on the steel guitar, while our old friend Greg Leisz adds mandolin. Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics is heavily involved in the album, writing most of the music, playing guitar and adding backing vocals, even duetting with Stevie as well as producing the album, and “In your dreams” seems to see the reunion of Stevie and her ex, Lindsey Buckingham, who plays guitar and also duets with her on one of the songs. A reconciliation? Perhaps. Time will tell. But so far this is one hell of a good album, which to be fair is no more than I'd expect from Ms. Nicks. But it even has me impressed, and I was already expecting it to be good.
There's a great mix of straightahead rock, country and ballads, with some really nice violin from Ann Marie Calhoun and Torrey del Vitto on tracks like
New Orleans, but perhaps the standout on the album is one of only three songs on which Stevie writes both lyrics and music, the powerful semi-ballad
Moonlight (A vampire's dream), on which she utilises her mystic/wiccan image to the full, with a beautifully delicate piano melody framing the song, while the following
Annabel Lee is adapted from the poem by Edgar Allan Poe, then the sharp starkness of
Soldier's angel kicks you right in the gut. Lindsey Buckingham's uncompromisingly stripped-back guitar sounding like a peal of doom behind Stevie's stricken, ragged vocal and the
thump-thump-thump of doomy drums makes this song at once unsettling and impossible to ignore, and perhaps there's another contender for standout. Buckingham also adds his vocal to this, though it's more on the chorus than as a duet, and Stevie, the fogotten widow of a soldier, sings the verses alone, which only seems right and in keeping with the spirit of the song.
Absolutely beautiful and sumptuous strings arrangement in
Everybody loves you, one of two songs on which Stewart adds his vocals, then Stevie kicks out the stays and rocks like a good thing on
Ghosts are gone, evoking memories of
Enchanted from “The wild heart”. Whether this is meant to be further indication that the rift between her and Buckingham has been healed or not is open to debate, but they certainly seem to work well together again, and seem to be enjoying the experience.
I've done my best to pick my favourite tracks on this album, but to be honest it's been a hard choice, as most of this could have gone into that category. It's just that good. Proof once again that good things come to those who wait, and even a decade after her last album Stevie can still blow them all away. Thirty-some years in the business, not including her time with Fleetwood Mac, and she still has it. Probably always will. Sixty-four years old this year, and still sounding like a twenty-year old. That's our Stevie: she'll probably never really grow old.
Overall impression: One of the best Stevie Nicks albums I've heard since “Bella donna”, way back in 1981.
Intention: As it always has been, to continue buying and enjoying her records. Must give “Trouble in Shangri-La” and “Street angel” a listen before long, too.