Stevie Nicks - Timespace: The Best of Stevie Nicks

Stevie Nicks hasn't scored an incredible number of post-Fleetwood Mac hits, but she's had enough to fill this CD. (Her 1998 four-CD box set may qualify as overkill). Her best solo songs are ones that sound like they could have come from Fleetwood Mac, including "Stand Back," "Leather and Lace," and "If Anyone Falls"--all included here. The highlight of this CD, and of Nicks' solo career, is "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around," her collaboration with Tom Petty. Petty proves to be Nicks's best foil since Lindsey Buckingham. --Charles R. Cross Amazon.com

New songs maintain consistency of back catalog

Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R3G8G6RSSOP24B My name is Jeremy Gloff and I'm a music collector. Here are my thoughts on Stevie Nicks "Timespace". June 2, 2008

Sample the best of the best

I am a fan of Stevie's, just not so much that I would want to own every thing she's put out. Therefore this a great collection of some of her best stuff. September 12, 2007

Read Between Her Lines...If You Can

Subjected to the precis test, most Stevie Nicks songs would probably come up a little short. Who knows what she's talking about half the time? Is that a bad thing? Nah, it's just her. Some songwriters offer the listener a clear narrative that could--if anyone cared to--be easily summarized. Stevie Nicks is not one of them. She's not a Joni Mitchell-type storyteller. But unlike say, Grace Slick, Laura Nyro or Nico, she is less cryptic than fragmentary. You know that "Sara" is about an intense romantic relationship, for instance, but just who was telling whom to build that house? And why? And it turns out Rhiannon was in fact a Welsh witch. Who knew? Or rather, who would know on the basis of the actual text?

But the vagaries were all part of Nicks' charm. Sorta Like looking at the hurried jottings from a diary...one that includes a few poetic fragments mixed in with the innocently self-absorbed musings. And, for the most part, it works. You do find yourself asking things like, "Well, just who is that second voice calling through the door on 'If Anyone Falls In Love?'" Tantalizing hints of a story there. But it doesn't get fleshed out.

And just as well too. Occasionally, Stevie finds another songwriter--like Tom Petty!--who complements her style and matches her sensibility. (The STORY behind "Stop Dragging Heart Around" is a little sketchy too, after all, but that doesn't keep it from being just about THE PERFECT Stevie Nicks track). By contrast, when she does more pedestrian songs by more pedestrian writers like Jon Bon Jovi or Bret Michaels, well, the songs' basic conceits are just SOOOO obvious. Too obvious, in fact. Love's a hard game to play? Yeah, no kidding. Sometimes life is pleasure, sometimes it's pain? Do tell, Jon.

But even with these less-than-stellar efforts, Stevie gives them the old college drop-out try and actually pulls them off. Just as her sheer conviction steers her through her own wheezy whimsy on schlock-masterpieces like "Beauty and the Beast." This ode to Gallic cinema and sentimentality should by rights be a clunker, but by dint of sheer will power, she makes something very meaningful of it. I get a little chill every time I hear her sing the line, "I never doubted your beauty, I've changed" even though I'm not 100% sure what that means [if she NEVER doubted her lover's beauty, why did she have to change]. Doesn't pay to overinterpret though. Just sit back and listen to her give Piaf a run for her money. And only Nicks can get away with whispering "la belle and la bete" tout en francais over the fade out. C'est magique...and magnifique.

And as awkward as some of the lyrics to the album's "political" closer "Operation Desert Angel" are, it still works, and her embrace of the participants in THAT desert war, seems to reach out to those who may have fought in the last one (Viet Nam) with her "you should know how much we love you" comments. And the song could certainly stand to be revived these days and for this war.

I see below that the hardcore fans have their arguments about just what tracks should have been included on any Stevie Nicks "Best Of." You're always going to get that kind of argument. Me, I am as happy as a pig in swill to be able to hear my two favorite Nicks numbers ("Stop Draggin..." and "Stand Back," well, if not quite back to back, certainly within minutes of each other. Magic Time.



August 15, 2006

Stevie Nicks - Timespace (1991)

Most solo artists don't have the hits to create a true greatest hits package, but Nicks is one exception. In fact Timespace eschews some of her top 40 hits, such as "After the Glitter Fades" and "Nightbird," to include some of her best tracks ("Beauty and the Beast" and "Has Anyone Ever Written Anything For You").

The striking thing about Timespace is what a strong collection it is. Nicks truly grew through the 80s, lifting off from the ashes of the seventies rock sound that Fleetwood Mac helped define and ultimately rising to create strong material based on the new electronic sounds of the 1980s.

Like most best of/greatest hits albums, the new tracks are nice but hardly required listening. While it's always interesting to hear Nicks tackle songs by other artists, the hair-metal of Jon Bon Jovi ("Sometimes It's a Bitch") and Bret Michaels ("Love's a Hard Game to Play") are more suited to Cher or Heart than a true original like Stevie Nicks. "Desert Angel" is yet another example of the self-indulgent lyrics and overblown production that had begun to plague her work.

Still, this is a great album for the casual listener who wants to own the best of Stevie Nicks solo work, which is well deserving of such a collection.
June 27, 2006

Nicks hits package rocks

Every major artist eventually releases a "best of" disc. For a true legendary artist like Stevie Nicks, I feel the best way to listen to her music is to hear her full albums as well as her 1998 3 cd box set, "Enchanted," as Stevie has more to offer than just her top 40 hits.But as an introduction to her solo work, or for fans to easily crank up her well known tunes on one disc, this is an excellent disc to own.Stevie Nicks has that one of a kind voice that cannot be duplicated, and her poetic cryptic writing is infectuous.Her biggest solo hits from the 1981-1989 period are all included here, including the top ten singles, "Talk to me," "Stand Back," "Leather and lace(with Don Henely)," and Stop draggin' my heart around(With Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers)." Also included are her top 20 hits "Rooms on fire," "If anyone falls," "I can't wait," and the classic metal grooved, "Edge of seventeen."Three fan faves, "Beauty and the beast," "Has anyone ever written anything for you," and a remixed version of "Whole lotta trouble," are also here, as are three bonus tracks, the best being "Operation Desert Angel," on which Stevie wrote about the Gulf war. The other two bonus tracks were not written by Nicks: "Sometimes it's a bitch" was penned by Jon Bon Jovi, and "Loves a hard game to play" penned by Brett Michaels of Poison, aren't terrible songs, but they also aren't the wonderful magical stuff the Queen of Rock can crank out on her own either.Those two songs were suggested by the record label to help push Nicks into the 1990's airwaves, and that plan didn't work out, as when both of those songs were released as singles to promote this package, they failed on the charts. That was enough to convince Nicks to follow her crystal visions and her 2001 top 5 comeback album, "Trouble in Shangri la" proves that fact.Still, this is a solid 5 star release that should be in every cd collection. This is the stuff man!! Stevie Nicks is one of rocks all time best(and my personal all time fave artist), and this solo compilation proves that fact easily. June 6, 2006

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