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19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Iron Fist in a Velvet Glove, 10 Sep 2003
Stevie Nicks, of course, first gained international fame along side Lindsey Buckingham and Christine McVie as one of the front singers of Fleetwood Mac, and her unusual voice and strange lyrics were potent factors in the band's incredibly successful album RUMORS. But for all its success, the members of the band found (and continue to find) Fleetwood Mac an emotional pressure cooker--and perhaps more to the point, with three vocalists there were only so many solo spots to go around on a single release.It was inevitable that Nicks, Buckingham, and McVie would write more music than Fleetwood Mac could ever find a recording slots for. And so all three begin to spin out from the band, each producing their own solo albums. Of the three, Stevie Nicks had the most visible success as a solo act, first with the platinum-selling BELLA DONNA and then with the equally memorable THE WILD HEART. Fans argue a great deal about which album is their favorite, and critics bicker about which album is Nick's best--but the truth is that both are extremely fine. Whereas BELLA DONNA had a somewhat country-music flavor, THE WILD HEART leans heavily on synthesizer and serious percussion, and it would generate at least three hit singles. Both "If Any One Falls" and "Stand Back" offer driving rhythms and some stunning keyboards, and with the latter Nicks recasts the almost savage fury that made BELLA DONNA's "Edge of Seventeen" so memorable; "Nightbird" presents Nicks in a slower, more melancholy, more thoughtful, and very memorable light. Still, the song for which this album is perhaps best remembered is one that was never really released as a single. Working with a near-symphonic arrangement with heavy strings, "Beauty and the Beast" is a truly stunning piece, with Nicks at her most romantic and vulnerable and yet her most emotionally powerful. Nicks' voice, which might be described as an iron fist inside a velvet glove, has always had a tendency to become just a shade too eccentric for its own good, but she controls it well throughout all these recordings--and most particularly here, in an incredibly complex array of delicately placed wails, cries, and surges. The vocal dynamics of this song alone are truly nothing short of miraculous. Lyrically, this recording also finds Nicks at or at least very near the height of her powers. A sort of rock and roll Rimbaud, Nicks' lyrics do not always make logical sense--but at her best, as on this album, they always make emotional sense, and both "Gate and Garden" and "Sable on Blonde" are particularly good examples of her often uncanny knack to fuse strange images to memorable effect. Although she continued to do memorable work with the on-again, off-again Fleetwood Mac, Nick's solo work entered a gradual decline of quality after THE WILD HEART until she suddenly resurged with yet another exceptional release: TROUBLE IN SHANGRI-LA. Where she goes from that point is any one's guess. But one thing is for sure: during Fleetwood Mac's SAY YOU WILL tour, Nicks was still performing "Stand Back"--and still doing it with the same vocal attack that made her recordings on THE WILD HEART so memorable--and still bringing the audience screaming to its feet. An exceptional recording by a truly unique recording artist. --GFT (Amazon.uk Reviewer)--
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~ Stevie Nicks
~ Stevie Nicks
~ Stevie Nicks
~ Stevie Nicks
~ Stevie Nicks
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