Magical. Mystical. Beautiful. Legendary. Mysterious. All of these words describe rock legend Stevie Nicks. One thing that Nicks seems to be immune to is age. She seems to live by the notion that “age isn’t anything but a number” because after all, she is in her 60′s and still looks great and sounds great for any woman in rock & roll – a rarity.
Nicks’ albums are sheer experiences - like dreams. This album is no exception. She starts out the album with the dreamlike-trance Secret Love, which is nothing short of sexy. It was a song that was written when Rumours was made back in 1976, but thankfully she kept it for herself and we have it now in this extremely beautiful version.
In Your Dreams is an almost-return to some of the songs that made Bella Donna famous – minus the duet with Tom Petty. It has a feel that is reminiscent of Stop Dragging My Heart Around. I am sure that it will please both classic and newcomers to Stevie’s music, something that she has always been good at doing.
One of the best things about this album is both the mix of rock and trance-likeness that weaves throughout the entire album. She proves this well on Wild Sargasso Sea, which tells the tale of a jilted lover and/or friends with benefits. She continues this haunting with the tribute to New Orleans song entitled New Orleans. As someone who lives in nearby Houston, TX and saw all the refugees coming from Hurricane Katrina, this is a very beautiful song about the hope and promise that New Orleans is back up and running despite the horrible events of Hurricane Katrina. Nicks exclaims “I wanna dress up/ I wanna wear beads.”
The best melodic song, though, has to be You May Be the One. Nicks’ classic backup singers, Sharon Celani and Lori Petty Nicks (her sister-in-law) join her in once again-unmatched harmony. It is nothing short of beautiful and sounds much like Nicks circa 1983 when The Wild Heart was released.
Annabel Lee sounds like an updated version mixture of The Wild Heart and Nightbird. All in all it is amazing and it is a welcome return to rock music. However, one of the biggest surprises comes on Solider’s Angel – a surprise duet with Lindsey Buckingham, her former boyfriend and fellow member of Fleetwood Mac.
