Bella Donna

Sound DNA

• Rock
• Classic Rock

• shimmering
• wistful
• bohemian

About

In the '70s, Stevie Nicks cut one of the most singular profiles in rock—she gave Fleetwood Mac an otherworldly glamour and deepened their lyrical catalog with metaphor-rich songs like "Sara" and "Landslide." On her solo debut, she maintained her mystic aura while adding a bit of AOR muscle to her sound, establishing herself as a force of femininity in a decidedly male landscape. Nicks began writing <i>Bella Donna</i> while Fleetwood Mac were at work on their sprawling masterwork <i>Tusk</i>, and Nicks' starpower and songwriting skills brought about the biggest of Mac's post-<i>Tusk</i> solo releases. Nicks fully embraces the bewitching side of her persona here, on the title track, which pairs a swaggering beat with an elegiac guitar line, and on the starlit "After the Glitter Fades," a country-music-inspired rumination on fame that balances gimlet-eyed reflection with the sort of drive that leads one to stadium stages. "Edge of Seventeen" embraces that duality even more fervently, its insistent guitar line (played by Waddy Wachtel, who would become one of Nicks' chief collaborators in the ensuing years) underscoring the anguish obliquely expressed in its lyrics. Two musical heavyweights join Nicks on <i>Bella Donna</i>, soft-rock kingpin Don Henley and heartland riffer Tom Petty, on the dreamy folk-rocker "Leather and Lace" and the tormented "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around," respectively. On both duets—one hopelessly besotted, the other tormented by dead-end-relationship frustration—she rises to the challenge, cementing the solo-star status <i>Bella Donna</i> set out to establish.

via Apple Music

Tracklist

Credits