I am writing this review while
football is on. What madness is this,
you ask? Never fear, dear reader, my
other passion remains unabated. However
the other game a) doesn’t feature the Miami Dolphins and b) is being recorded
so I can watch it when I’m done. Ah,
technology.
Disc 548 is…. Fly
Year of Release: 1999
What’s up with the Cover? I had no idea initially. I assumed it was some lame art project. Then Sheila pointed out that these are photos
of select portions of butterfly wings that seem to display letters. Nature is the greatest artist there has ever
been but I appreciate it more when the camera pans out a bit.
Also, in the CD booklet there is a
series of pictures of the Dixie Chicks themselves, in various ‘fly’ themed
photo shoots. We have them riding a
rocket, posing as fairies, bursting out of a zipper, stuck to fly paper, on the
wing of a plane and riding a swing. Any
of these would have been better than the butterfly wing close ups (as fairies
they are particularly fetching) but I think my favourite is this one:
See downloader types? You are missing out.
How I Came To Know It: For a long time I only had the two Dixie Chicks
albums I previously reviewed (“Wide Open Spaces” at Disc 407 and “Home” at
Disc 140) but eventually I decided to give this one a shot a few years ago.
How It Stacks Up: I have four Dixie Chicks albums (all those featuring
Natalie Maines as the lead singer, so the last four). I like “Fly” but I’d put it third out of
four.
Rating: 3 stars
My first experience with this album was seeing the
video for “Ready to Run” which
essentially featured the Dixie Chicks in wedding dresses, riding bikes through
town in what I think was supposed to be a comic chase scene. Their whole
approach just seemed a bit…goofy.
Once I did get “Fly” my suspicions were confirmed,
because it is definitely goofy in places.
It’s also clear that the Dixie Chicks had a lot of wacky fun putting the
record together. At times it seems like
they are trying too hard to demonstrate how much fun they were having which has
them straying too far into the new country genre. I abhor new country, and all
the vacuous pop starlets it spews out, and I was afraid the Dixie Chicks, with
such a promising beginning, were going to be ruined.
Luckily, this did not happen. The album is fun and upbeat, but the strength
of the band’s musical talent shines through it all. As I’ve mentioned on previous albums, sisters
Emily and Martie are brilliant musicians on banjo and fiddle. Natalie has a
powerful voice that would be at home not only in country music, but pop or hard
rock as well.
“Fly” takes a more pop turn for sure, but the
bluegrass roots of Emily and Martie keep it grounded enough that it doesn’t get
away from itself and head to far into (shudder) the new Nashville sound. Also, I liked the tension of Natalie’s very
pop vocals against the more traditional harmonies of the sisters and their
subtle playing. Any more strain and the sound
would break unpleasantly but for the most part it is the strain that keeps you
interested.
This tension is most noticeable on the first track, “Ready to Run” which (bad video aside) is
essentially a pop song that has been “bluegrass-i-fied” with some brilliant
violin and banjo licks and even a little Celtic penny whistle. The violin lick sounds painfully similar to another
song I’ve heard, but since I can’t place what it is, I’ll give them a
pass. Besides, it is a good lick.
The album was massively commercially successful,
going multi-platinum in Canada, as well as a bunch of other English-speaking
countries and spawning seven top ten hits in the U.S. Considering the album only has fourteen
tracks, that is amazing.
Over exposure at the time annoyed me, and had me
overlooking much of the album’s good points when it was first released. “Cowboy Take Me Away” comes to mind,
which I got tired of seeing constantly on CMT.
Now, free of the bombardment, I love this honest, simple love song
composed as many of the band members were finding love of their own. At least one of the Dixie Chicks wrote about
half the songs on this album, and that this is one of them (Martie Seidel
co-wrote it) makes me like it more.
They didn’t write “Goodbye, Earl” mind you (that was the prolific country songwriter
Dennis Linde who has a whole separate wiki page just dedicated to his writing
credits).
They may not have written it, but damn, do the Dixie
Chicks own it. “Goodbye Earl” is the perfect signature song for “Fly” because it incorporates
all of the Chicks best elements. The
song features Natalie’s high spirited, sassy powerhouse voice, Martie and Emily’s
harmonies and virtuoso playing, and it isn’t afraid to skirt controversy.
“Goodbye Earl” is about the harsh but important
topic of spousal abuse, and it took a little heat for doing so in a
light-hearted tone (underscored by a comic video featuring well-known TV stars
Jane Krakowski and Dennis Franz). Well,
the song is light-hearted in its approach, but the fact that a woman and her
best friend conspire to murder the despicable Earl (by poisoning his black-eyed
peas at dinner) is black comedy at its finest.
“Goobye Earl”
is a brave and brilliant song. That it shattered
some of the Nashville establishment’s pre-conceived notions on what three
pretty women should or shouldn’t sing about was just a bonus. It wouldn’t be the last time the Dixie Chicks
would deliciously do just whatever the hell they wanted artistically, but I’ll
save that for another review.
Best tracks: Ready to Run, Cowboy Take Me Away, Cold Day in July,
Goodbye Earl
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