Jubilee Offer: Patriotic Classics for £2.50 |
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
Listen to Samples and Buy MP3s
Songs from this album are available to purchase as MP3s. Click on "Buy MP3" or
view the MP3 Album.
|
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Nothing changes folks like babies and war, and since the release of their last album, 2002's Home, the Dixie Chicks have been forever altered by both. If that album showcased the trio as precocious young adults, Taking the Long Way finds them sobered and matured, and in a grown-up state of mind. Produced by the celebrated Rick Rubin (Johnny Cash, Red Hot Chili Peppers), who saw the Chicks as "a great rock act making a country album, not a country act making a rock album," their new record impresses both as beautiful sonic tapestry (peppered with myriad Beatlesque hallmarks) and forthright yet vulnerable portrait of three women shaken by the personal and political events of the past few years. As they make clear in the defiant "Not Ready to Make Nice," they still smart over the backlash from their 2003 Bushwhacking. But as they assert on the equally autobiographical "The Long Way Around," they could never "kiss all the asses that they told me to" and just follow others aimlessly--and silently--through life. This means that the Chicks are simultaneously prideful and scornful of celebrity ("Everybody Knows"), and that as new mothers they increasingly treasure the refuge they find in life with their families, out of the spotlight ("Easy Silence," "Lullaby," "Baby Hold On"). The push and pull of both passions drive this record, which also touches on the personal issues of infertility (with which sisters Martie Maguire and Emily Robison both dealt) and Alzheimer's (from which Natalie Maines's grandmother suffers). The trio crafted all 14 cuts with the help of such writers as Sheryl Crow, Gary Louris, Mike Campbell, and Keb' Mo', laying out their lives as honestly and intimately as they might in their diaries. For that reason, on first listen, Taking the Long Way seems too somber--in need of a bit of levity and more than a couple of uptempo songs (like the sexy, '60s-flavored "I Like It") to resonate for the long haul. It also seems to lack the writing quality that Darrell Scott, Patty Griffin, and Bruce Robison brought to Home. But on repeated plays, those concerns dissipate. By the last cut, the R&B/gospel offering "I Hope," the Chicks have chronicled their journey with as much spirituality as spunk, their pain deeply ingrained in their protests. --Alanna Nash
Product Description
1-The Long Way Around 2-Easy Silence 3-Not Ready To Make Nice 4-Everybody Knows 5-Bitter End 6-Lullaby 7-Lubbock Or Leave It 8-Silent House 9-Favorite Year 10-Voice Inside My Head 11-I Like It 12-Baby Hold On 13-So Hard 14-I Hope (2006/COLUMBIA) 14 tracks produced by Rick Rubin - 16 page booklet - nice price offer
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
38 of 39 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
I have to say, country music leaves me cold. I bought this album to support the Dixie Chicks and the concept of freedom of speech. I was utterly horrified by the reaction which greeted Natalie's anti-Bush comments in 2003. Blacklisted from radio stations, public burnings of their CDs, death threats... it was like Nazi Germany reborn in the USA. So I bought this CD as a political gesture; I thought I would listen to it once, but was sure I wouldn't like the music.
Well, I got a very pleasant surprise, because this is actually a terrific album. Mature, heartfelt lyrics and irresistible hooks are the order of the day, and it sounds nothing like my idea of country music (which is probably due to my ignorance) but a straightforward pop/rock album with perhaps a few country influences. I notice Dan Wilson of Semisonic is co-writer on a number of the best tracks, and if, like me, you were a fan of Semisonic, I think you will recognise his touch here. So forget your preconceptions about country music and give it a try.
Finally, let's all be thankful we live in a country where artists can express their opinions without fear of blacklisting and other terrible reprisals.
Well, I got a very pleasant surprise, because this is actually a terrific album. Mature, heartfelt lyrics and irresistible hooks are the order of the day, and it sounds nothing like my idea of country music (which is probably due to my ignorance) but a straightforward pop/rock album with perhaps a few country influences. I notice Dan Wilson of Semisonic is co-writer on a number of the best tracks, and if, like me, you were a fan of Semisonic, I think you will recognise his touch here. So forget your preconceptions about country music and give it a try.
Finally, let's all be thankful we live in a country where artists can express their opinions without fear of blacklisting and other terrible reprisals.
24 of 25 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Musically, this is an excellent follow-up to 2002's Home. But it is also the album immediately following the furore stirred up by Natalie Maines's comments denigrating President Bush, and that makes it a slightly more important release than would be usual. That it has been phenomenally successful is likely a reflection that the hysteria only afflicted a small proportion of the US population, and that as usual the televised minority was mistakenly taken to be representative of the whole.
That the Chicks are angry with that minority is in plenty of evidence in the lyrics of songs like The Long Way Round, Not Ready to Make Nice, and Lubbock Or Leave It. This last song emphasises the message via the threatening tones of the instruments, which grumble, growl and spit with vehemence: it sounds like Emily Robison is going to pluck the strings clean off her banjo, and Martie Maguire is going to saw straight through the fiddle with her bow.
But in amongst all the anger is an endearing naivety: the Chicks seem genuinely shocked not just by the nastiness of the world, but that any of it should be directed at them personally. "Why me?" they seem to be asking.
Although the album as a whole is a shade darker than its predecessors, however, it's not totally obsessed with the CD crushers, and one of the tracks - I Like It - is almost upbeat. But there is no mattress dancing, and none of the humour (albeit of the graveyard variety) of Goodbye Earl.
A couple of the tracks, Silent House and Voice Inside My Head, glance back to A Home from the last album, but if anything there is even more regret, underlined by Martie's weeping strings on Silent House and the plaintive steel guitar on Voice Inside My Head.
Bitter End is a country waltz, but the title gives a clue to the mood. Lullaby, on the other hand, is a soft affirmation of love reminiscent of Godspeed on Home.
There are also times when non-country influences come to the fore: check out the riff on I Like It and compare with Martha and the Vandellas' Nowhere to Run; and listen to Natalie morph into Aretha on the gospel-tinged I Hope - that could easily be Billy Preston on organ and BB King on guitar.
So, the Dixie Chicks survived the forces of conservatism and came back with a suitable retaliatory blow, not by expanding on the Bush bashing, but by simply doing what they do best, making a really enjoyable, and successful, record. Boy, that smarts!
That the Chicks are angry with that minority is in plenty of evidence in the lyrics of songs like The Long Way Round, Not Ready to Make Nice, and Lubbock Or Leave It. This last song emphasises the message via the threatening tones of the instruments, which grumble, growl and spit with vehemence: it sounds like Emily Robison is going to pluck the strings clean off her banjo, and Martie Maguire is going to saw straight through the fiddle with her bow.
But in amongst all the anger is an endearing naivety: the Chicks seem genuinely shocked not just by the nastiness of the world, but that any of it should be directed at them personally. "Why me?" they seem to be asking.
Although the album as a whole is a shade darker than its predecessors, however, it's not totally obsessed with the CD crushers, and one of the tracks - I Like It - is almost upbeat. But there is no mattress dancing, and none of the humour (albeit of the graveyard variety) of Goodbye Earl.
A couple of the tracks, Silent House and Voice Inside My Head, glance back to A Home from the last album, but if anything there is even more regret, underlined by Martie's weeping strings on Silent House and the plaintive steel guitar on Voice Inside My Head.
Bitter End is a country waltz, but the title gives a clue to the mood. Lullaby, on the other hand, is a soft affirmation of love reminiscent of Godspeed on Home.
There are also times when non-country influences come to the fore: check out the riff on I Like It and compare with Martha and the Vandellas' Nowhere to Run; and listen to Natalie morph into Aretha on the gospel-tinged I Hope - that could easily be Billy Preston on organ and BB King on guitar.
So, the Dixie Chicks survived the forces of conservatism and came back with a suitable retaliatory blow, not by expanding on the Bush bashing, but by simply doing what they do best, making a really enjoyable, and successful, record. Boy, that smarts!
52 of 55 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
From the very first track of this album the Dixie Chicks make it plain that their lot in life is to lead rather than follow. The extremely talented and controversial female trio does it their own way, writing their own songs and caring not a whit for those who disagree with either their politics or their genre crossover from country to rock `n roll.
Defiant, proud and unapologetic, even the slow songs radiate their frame of mind, an example being track two, "Easy Silence" when Natalie sings:
"Monkeys on the barricades / Are warning us to back away / They form commissions trying to find / The next one they can crucify"
The stand-out track of the album is the first single "Not Ready to Make Nice", where the Chicks sing about the fallout from their fans and the death threats they received:
"And how in the world can the words that I said / Send somebody so over the edge / That they'd write me a letter / Sayin' that I better shut up and sing / Or my life will be over"
The rest of the album is stamped with the indelible boot print of the Dixie Chicks, maybe a tad over-produced, definitely country (albeit mixed with helpings of rock `n roll), but without filler material. Other songs to take note of are "The Long Way Around"; "Everybody Knows"; "Lubbock or Leave It"; "Favorite Year"; "Voice Inside my Head"; "Baby Hold On" and the closer "I Hope" a song written for the victims of Hurricane Katrina.
This album is well worth every dime, and is a must for independent thinkers everywhere.
Defiant, proud and unapologetic, even the slow songs radiate their frame of mind, an example being track two, "Easy Silence" when Natalie sings:
"Monkeys on the barricades / Are warning us to back away / They form commissions trying to find / The next one they can crucify"
The stand-out track of the album is the first single "Not Ready to Make Nice", where the Chicks sing about the fallout from their fans and the death threats they received:
"And how in the world can the words that I said / Send somebody so over the edge / That they'd write me a letter / Sayin' that I better shut up and sing / Or my life will be over"
The rest of the album is stamped with the indelible boot print of the Dixie Chicks, maybe a tad over-produced, definitely country (albeit mixed with helpings of rock `n roll), but without filler material. Other songs to take note of are "The Long Way Around"; "Everybody Knows"; "Lubbock or Leave It"; "Favorite Year"; "Voice Inside my Head"; "Baby Hold On" and the closer "I Hope" a song written for the victims of Hurricane Katrina.
This album is well worth every dime, and is a must for independent thinkers everywhere.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
I took a short cut
Bought this after seeing the film "shut up & sign" at the cinema.
until then I had no concept of their music, and I took the easy route and bought there most recent... Read more
until then I had no concept of their music, and I took the easy route and bought there most recent... Read more
Published 1 month ago by David
Very touching
I have got this album today. This is the best album of Chicks I have ever heard until now,very emotional and touching. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Monika
dixie chix
haven't even heard this yet . . . but it gonna be az gd az their other offeringz . . . saw them at nec and despite the poor accoustix they were great . . . Read more
Published 15 months ago by ddantz
Chicks
Good album listened to the Chicks after buying the Spin off band Courtyard Hounds album
Published 19 months ago by Mr. Paul W. Kirk
Defiant, proud and unapologetic
The Dixie Chicks have matured a lot since their original recording of Wide Open Spaces. Natalie's voice has come on in leaps and bounds and adds loads to what would already be a... Read more
Published on 5 Nov 2009 by K. Stone
Love it
I'm a recent convert to country music via a few accidental listenings to Bob Harris country on Radio 2 and I bought this album partly as a consequence of that and partly because I... Read more
Published on 18 July 2009 by Aoin Douglas
Absolutely Amazing!! Stunning album!
This album is amazing! Fantastic song writing. The first 3 tracks especially are brilliant and amazingly well written songs. I love it!
Published on 5 Nov 2008 by Rebekah
wow! i love it!
I bought this album for two reasons. First and foremost, the music is so beautiful, original and real compared to most of the other stuff about at the moment. Read more
Published on 24 Jun 2008 by Iain Campbell
DUNIT AGAIN
I CAN WAIT TO GET MY COPY OF THIS ALBUM BECAUSE IT LOOK'S LIKE THE'VE DONE IT AGAIN,I DONT THINK THEY CAN MAKE A BAD RECORD.TONY PARSONS
Published on 17 Nov 2007 by A. D. Parsons
On A Different Level
"It has vibes of Stevie Nicks and Fleetwood Mac".
Quite, if I hadn't read the sleeve notes, I'd be convinced that Lindsey Buckingham himself had co-written, or even... Read more
Quite, if I hadn't read the sleeve notes, I'd be convinced that Lindsey Buckingham himself had co-written, or even... Read more
Published on 30 July 2007 by Wildheart
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
