Hasten Down the Wind
lthough this may not be most people's favorite Linda Ronstadt album, I have a particular fondness for it, mostly because it was the first entire Linda album I ever listened to from start to finish in one sitting.
Her vocal range is stunning and the song choices on this disc seem hell-bent on stretching that range as much as possible. Linda sings everything from country-rock to pop to soul to reggae with admitedly mixed results. She even tries (not entirely successfully) to cover Buddy Holly ("That'll Be The Day") and Patsy Cline ("Crazy").The flaws are never in her vocal work, but rather, in her inability to emotionally connect with some of the material. As eclectic as she tries to be, she seems to produce her best work when she is singing something simple and original. The highlight is easily the wonderful "Lose Again" written by Karla Bonoff. Ronstadt injects just the right amount of pathos and heartbreak into the track and gives it a nice simplicity mixed with moments of extreme vocal power. Close seconds are her plaintiff "Try Me Again"(one of my favs to sing in the shower, what a great hook in the bridge!), the powerfully sad "Down So Low" and the touching "Lo Siento Mi Vida".
Then there is a wonderful a capella moment with "Rivers of Babylon" that totally comes from left field, but completely works.
With this album it's easy to sense that Ronstadt is growing restless and tired of singing just rock-pop and is acheing to venture into more complex musical territories. With the advantage of hindsight, it's easy to see this album is really the precursor to her later famous forays into Mexican folk music, classic jaz/pop standards and an overall more eclectic vocal mix.
The cover is also perhaps her most teasingly sexual, an indication that by now she was perhaps starting to become more well known as a sex symbol than a serious artist by the general public.Headlights!
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