Saturday, May 28, 2011

(Review) Still magical: Stevie Nicks 'In Your Dreams' Grade 'A' (Ireland)

Stevie Nicks: In Your Dreams 
(Reprise CD, 64:47).

I think a 10-year wait between albums is a bit long, especially when you have material as strong as Nicks presents here. In fact, the first single and opening track, “Secret Love,” was written in 1976, when Fleetwood Mac was opening for Peter Frampton at the time. It is about a forbidden relationship, but not one with Frampton, Nicks said.

Nicks’ last album of new material was the Grammy-nominated “Trouble in Shangi-La” 10 years ago. It was written and recorded at her Los Angeles home and is co-produced by Dave Stewart and Glen Ballard, Nicks and Stewart (ex-Eurythmics with Annie Lennox) co-wrote seven of the 13 songs. Former bandmate Lindsey Buckingham sings and plays guitar on “Soldier’s Angel,” a highlight track that easily could have fit on Fleetwood Mac’s smash “Rumours” album. Mick Fleetwood himself contributes drums to the album. However, the core group that made the album was Nicks, Stewart, her longtime friend and musical director Waddy Wachtel and her girls, Sharon Celani and Lori Nicks.

Among the strong album’s many highlights are the travelogue “New Orleans”; “Moonlight (A Vampire’s Dream),” inspired by the “Twilight” series; the orchestrated seduction of “Italian Dreams”; the rocker “Ghosts Are Gone”; and “Annabel Lee,” a 6-plus-minute delight inspired by the 1849 Edgar Allan Poe piece and a meditation on love and death. In one song, she sings, “I’m just a dreamer; I’m just a storyteller,” while in another the 63-year-old singer (her birthday was Thursday) admits her desire to “wear feathers and lace.” Grade: A

Villagesoup - Ireland
By Tom Von Malder

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