By James Hunter
Rolling Stone
June 21, 2001
STEVIE NICKS: Trouble in Shangri-La (Reprise)
* * * 1/2 (3 and a 1/2 stars out of 5)
Stripped to the bare essentials, Stevie Nicks’ music is just Nicks’ articulate rasp and her 14 million romantic emotions; when it’s rocking just right, there’s nothing else like it, giving robust rock form to her seemingly untamable impressions. And on Trouble in Shangri-La, it’s rocking as right as it has since the mid-Eighties, when producer Jimmy Iovine helped Nicks craft two consecutive solo masterstrokes of big-time guitar, tunes and rhythms. On Shangri-La, she works comfortably with everyone from Sheryl Crow to the Dixie Chicks’ Natalie Maines. Producer John Shanks shows a perfect understanding of what makes Nicks Nicks on thrillers like ‘Planets of the Universe” and the sensational title track. And when, working with Rick Nowels on ‘I Miss You,’ she sings “I have so many questions/About love and about pain/About strained relationships,” Nicks delivers some of her best work since she first barked out the words “white-winged dove.”
