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Aug 29, 2023 Web Exclusive By Frank Valish

Massive career-spanning box sets are a completist’s dream. In this installment, Rhino takes on Stevie Nicks’ solo career. The 10-CD set features each disc housed in a replica sleeve with copies of the liner notes, all be they too small to actually read. There is no big booklet examining the titles, featuring essays or ephemera. It’s just the music. And as far as that goes, it doesn’t get much better.

Bella Donna, from 1981, is the gold standard, and the conventional wisdom is that things go progressively downhill from there, at least until the 2000s come along and Nicks enters the revitalized stage of her career. The big hits on Bella Donna (“Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” with Tom Petty, “Edge of Seventeen,” “Leather and Lace” with Don Henley) need no introduction. But even the other tracks here shine. It’s Nicks’ coming out party.

The Wild Heart, released two years later, doesn’t have quite the same hit power as Bella Donna, but songs like the title track and “Enchanted” are only some of the non-hits that sparkle with the best of Nicks’ solo work.

Rock a Little, from 1985, was a largely forgettable affair, steeped in ‘80s effects, but the upbeat “I Can’t Wait” is perfect ‘80s radio, and the ballads “I Sing for Things” and “Has Anyone Ever Written Anything For You” touch with the best of her ballads.

The Other Side of the Mirror (1989) stands up better to time with songs that are not obscured by the decade’s worse impulses. The tunes are mostly earworms, benefiting as always from Nicks’ inimitable voice and overall charisma, and with four tracks with either co-writing credit and/or guitar playing by Heartbreaker Mike Campbell. Unfortunately, “Two Kinds of Love,” with Bruce Horsby, in hindsight only proves that Hornsby was no Tom Petty in terms of male Nicks duet partners. A cover of Johnny Cash’s “I Still Miss Someone” does the Man in Black proud.

With 1994’s Street Angel, Waddy Wachtel, architect of the infamous chugging riff of “Edge of Seventeen” is back in a more prominent role, where on The Other Side of the Mirror he seemed more of a bit player. The result is an album that is more immediate, more thrown back to the classic Nicks albums of the early ’80s. And while there may be no big hit tracks other than “Maybe Love Will Change Your Mind,” which reached 57 on the Billboard chart, it’s a better album upon revisiting that it was perhaps given credit for at the time, being released amid the grunge explosion.

After Street Angel, Nicks laid low for the rest of the ‘90s, not releasing another album until 2001’s Trouble in Shangri-La, and the album finds her entering the new millennium sounding reenergized and supported by a cast of admirers including Sheryl Crow, Macy Gray, and (Dixie) Chick Natalie Maines, all who provide supporting vocals. But the album sounds not so much like a star-studded affair, rather a return to what Nicks always did best, write killer songs.

Another 10-year break after Shangri-La found the release of In Your Dreams, which was produced by Eurythmics’ Dave Stewart, who also duetted with Nicks on “Cheaper Than Free.” Lindsey Buckingham also returns to provide guitar and backing vocals on “Soldier’s Angel.” Aside from the undeniable pop melody of the title track, the rocker “Ghosts Are Gone,” and the soaring choruses of “Italian Summer,” In Your Dreams is predictably solid fare.

By 24 Karat Gold, Nicks was firmly in the middle of her resurgence. Fleetwood Mac was well into its own third (or eighth?) life, and Nicks’ solo profile was as high as it had been since Bella Donna. For the album, she recorded demos of old songs written between 1969 and 1987, with a couple newer tracks/covers thrown into the mix. And it shows, the album being one of her strongest solo records since that glorious debut.

The set is capped with a two-CD compilation of rarities consisting of soundtrack cuts, B-sides, and non-proper album tracks. It’s 23 additional songs essential to the complete Stevie Nicks collection, and it’s a boon to have all these various songs in one place. They are in no way throwaways, the set culminating in Nicks’ 2022 version of Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth.”

It’s all here with Complete Studio Albums & Rarities. And it’s worth your while in grand sum. (www.stevienicksofficial.com)

Author rating: 9/10