Band: Bonnie Raitt
Album: Nick of Time
Why Rolling Stone gets it right: Wow, I can't really tell you.
Why Rolling Stone gets it wrong: [Deep breath, then rushed voice] It's lame blues rock, it features cheesy synth strings, it's faux feminist nonsense for secretaries and idiots, she looks like a skunk, the easy country influences are straight middle of the road, aaaaaannnnnnnnnnnnnnnd... almosteverysongisaboutlove.
Best song: Nope.
Worst song: Any of them.
Is it awesome?: Come on, now.
If you didn't think I could hate an album more then "Achtung Baby" or "Sweet Baby James," boy, were you wrong.
I geuss I shouldn't begrudge Ms. Raitt -- with her white strip in hair that makes her look like the object of French rapist Pepe Le Pew's affections -- for making an album that sounds like the period from which it sprung. It came from the late 80s, when Roxette was making records like "It Must've Been Love" and Heart was doing "Who Will You Run To." This was a time when pseudo-rogueish blues rock was celebrated by boomers facing mid-lie crises.
Hell, "Nick of Time" won album of the year at the Grammys that year (the title track won best female rock and pop act, garnering Raitt three awards). Now, it's the Grammys, so no one should give a shit, but still. Other albums worlds better than "Nick Of Time" that came out in 1989:
- The Beastie Boys - Paul's Boutique
- N.W.A. - Straight Outta Compton
- Motley Crue - Dr. Feelgood (seriously)
- Nirvana - Bleach
- Fugazi - 13 Songs
- The Pixies - Doolittle
- Bad Religion - No Control
- Madonna - Like A Prayer
- Jane's Addiction - Nothing's Shocking
- Tom Petty - Full Moon Fever
- De La Soul - 3 Feet High and Rising
- Public Enemy - Fear of a Black Planet
- Faith No More - The Real Thing
- Chris Isaak - Heart Shaped World
See all those records? Far and away better than "Nick Of Time." Thanks, Grammys.
3 comments:
The John Hiatt song is good.
Never would have pegged you for a "Heart Shaped World" guy. As loathsome as Isaak became, that album was at the vanguard of that whole, post-Blue Velvet, bolo tie/Twin Peaks/informed adult music era from '87 to '90.
Oh, yeah. I adore "Heart Shaped World." I was in a band in high school that covered "Wicked Game" largely because I am in love with that guitar line.
It's a whole scene that I'm strangely attracted to, and truly looking forward to the retro appreciate of in a few years.
It's zenith was probably that Roy Orbison, black and white concert. It's nadir came when Twin Peaks kind of died in the ass. Either that, or Tom Cochrane's appearance on VH1.
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