Not since she shagged the drummer at the pinnacle of Rumours has Stevie Nicks exhibited such poor timing.
Having waited a decade to release the follow-up to 2001’s Trouble In Shangri-La, she chooses a time when the air is thick with talk of new Kate Bush material totally stealing Stevie’s 70s mystic chanteuse thunder.
Still, she makes a fine return, eschewing the pop gloss of her Rooms On Fire period for her country folk roots, delivered with grace, pout and without resorting to Twain-ish gimmickry. No longer cracked by Klonopin, Nicks’s voice is rich, confident and snake-coiled, whether lilting through classical country such as For What It’s Worth or slyly belting out well-muscled rockers like Ghosts Are Gone.
But, for all the Kraftwerk-like synth nods on Everybody Loves You and the Jean Rhys references on the sassy Wide Sargasso Sea, it’s the sublime Secret Love – originally written in 1976 – and the Lindsey Buckingham collaboration Soldier’s Angel – essentially a Chain-laden Gold Dust Woman – that will demand, and reward, the most avid attention. Sorry, Kate who?
