Stevie Nicks
Bella Donna

THE REVIEW

There was a time when a beautiful woman conquered America with her dance steps and later did so in regal pose with a parrot in her hand. We're obviously talking about Stevie Nicks, the female voice of Fleetwood Mac. Having left the band and been turned down by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers when she requested to join them, the singer decided to embark on a solo career, and, I would add, very successfully: Nicks has six albums to her name, two Grammy nominations, and seven platinum records.

"Bella Donna" is Stevie Nicks' first historic solo album, and many of the songs it contains were already written by the artist during her time with Fleetwood Mac, later discarded by the other band members and by Stevie Nicks herself.

The album is produced by none other than Tom Petty and his Damn The Torpedoes producer (released that same year), Jimmy Iovine, while the reins of the musical recordings are in the hands of Benmont Tench, the Heartbreakers' keyboardist. The technical part is thus left to big names, but the guests are no less: we find E-street band’s keyboardist Roy Bittan, the beautiful voice of the "eagle" Don Henley, just to name a couple.

Strangely, sometimes debut solo albums get totally ignored, while others are hailed (rightly or not). "Bella Donna" was a real success, it reached number one in America and top positions in various European countries and achieved five platinum records on its own. Despite the solo success, Stevie Nicks had to interrupt the tour to resume recording "Mirage" and continue with the Fleetwood Mac career, from whose sound she deviates significantly. It is therefore partly due to the freedom to write in a wholly personal way and partly due to the influence of guest-musicians that the album's sound differs greatly from the classics we were used to. Sure, the sound and genre are nothing complicated or difficult to listen to, but the result is much more influenced by country-rock, whose nuances are quite prominently felt here and there. In this style, the guitars in the sweet "After The Glitter Fades" are enjoyable.

A particular praise goes to one of the two hits of the album, "Edge Of Seventeen", dedicated to the death of John Lennon and the singer's uncle; it has an incredible simplicity and rhythm, the singing is incredibly fiery, and backing singers Lori Perry and Sharon Celani do an excellent job, while the powerful riff played by Waddy Wachtel makes the piece unique and unforgettable. For those who place great importance on a song's lyrics, the words are very refined: a white-winged dove is compared to the spirit of deceased people.

The other great hit of the album is a piece written by Tom Petty. Stevie desperately wanted one of his songs, and after Petty took two back because he liked them too much, he finally gifted her this "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" perfectly suitable for Nicks' voice, fantastically duetted with its own composer. And if we talk about duets, "Leather And Lace" is a fantastic result, because the voices of Stevie Nicks and Don Henley blend perfectly together, almost as they did with Buckingham. The only flaw one might find in the album is the downturn towards the end with the last two pieces "Outside In The Rain" and "The Highwayman", surely good songs, but they have much less to offer compared to the others. A different finale would have made the album a masterpiece. Catchy but also gritty, that's how one could define it. Certainly an excellent album as a whole, perhaps the most beautiful of her personal discography. The American Bella Donna did a magnificent job.