Search - Grace Slick :: Dreams

Sweet DREAMS

Gregor von Kallahann | 03/06/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Grace Slick likely did not care about critical opinion at this point in her career. She had already been the object of much rock scribe scorn for using orchestration on MANHOLE in '73. By the time this, her second solo album, was released in '80, her obstinate decision to continue with this trend was even more likely to rankle the critical establishment. This was, after all, the New Wave era, and while Grace may have shared a certain kind of rebelious 'tude with, say, Chrissie Hynde or Debbie Harry--to say nothing of a kind of spiritual kinship with out-and-out punks--she liked her own musical settings layered and lavish. (Well, for now anyway: this one WAS followed by the harder rocking WELCOME TO WRECKING BALL a year or so later).



DREAMS is more cohesive--and much more of a true solo record--than MANHOLE, which was a real love-it or hate-it affair. The earlier record consisted of a Grace Slick magnum opus (the more-or-less title track) and a few other songs she penned, but it closed with "Epic #73" a song that she technically co-wrote with Paul Kantner and David Freiberg, but was in fact a primarily another Kantner-esque epic. And she was totally absent on another track, "It's Only Music." I have my theories as to why Grace opted for this kind of strategy. Primarily, I think, she really didn't want to do a solo record and was being pressured by the record company. Largely absenting herself from two of the tracks was perhaps her way of thumbing her nose at the "suits."



Unfortunately for her, many fans thought they were being slighted too. (I wasn't one...I loved MANHOLE, but I understand where some of the naysayers among the fanbase are coming from.)



But DREAMS was a different animal. Recorded after her official (first) departure from Jefferson Starship, it really did not involve the particpation of many members of the "Airplane family." Her main collaborator here is producer Ron Frangipane. Grace was always a collaborative artist, and, cut loose from her bandmates, she was lucky to find a sympathetic artistic collaborator in Frangipane.



Also appearing for the first time on a Slick project was guitarist and songwriter Scott Zito, who would go on to work with Grace on her next project, the harder rocking WRECKING BALL. He contributes a couple of songs, both of which are thematically and musically appropriate to the overall feel of the album, the Flemenco flavored "El Diablo" and "Angel of Night" (a bit to close to Kansas' "Dust In the Wind" for comfort, but an OK track overall).



So we see thatm, as with MANHOLE, not every song included on the album is a Grace Slick composition. BUT pretty every one sounds like it could be, and that's the main thing. The album is interestingly sequenced so that only last six tracks are Grace Slick originals, but the opening tracks flow so well with the mood of the album that you have to read the credits closely to realize that.



Tthe album really DOES seem unified. Unlike even the best Airplane or Starship records, DREAMS is not a "variety show." It's all Grace, and it's all good. By the time we get to (what was originally) Side 2, we find Grace in a rare confessional mode. Her stint in rehab behind her, we find a less cryptic, more sober (in every sense of the word) songwriter. Her "Do It the Hard Way" is as focused and direct a song as Grace ever penned. That song, and the similarly themed "Let It Go" are anthems of sobriety and spiritual renewal. "Full Moon Man" is that rarity, a Grace Slick love song, and while it's not a Balin type ballad, it has an appeal all its own. And speaking of atypical Grace Slick songs, the closer "Garden of Man" is certainly that. Even at the height of the Haight, no one in his right mind would have imagined that the sarcastic Slick would pen a song with an overtly hippie title--and message--like that.



But it works. Her double track vocals weave in and out through the song's coda (one that unself-consciously echoes the earlier "Full Moon Man") singing about love that "goes on forever." The Grace Slick of 10 years previous might have sung similar words perhaps, but only as a back up singer on a Marty or Paul song. By 1980, Grace was willing to embrace something of the spirit of the Sixties in a way she hadn't personally been able to do before. Of course, she wasn't just mouthing "love and peace" platitudes. It went deeper than that--it really was a metaphor for her own sense of renewal and rebirth.



It's pretty clear from reading reviews posted here that this is THE definitive Grace Slick solo project for many fans. It serves as proof that Grace could do great work apart from her old bandmates. The other albums had their intersting moments, and fans would certainly welcome having them re-issued on CD, but DREAMS really is Grace at her amazing best.

"

Grace Slick

Paul Craig | Bristol UK | 10/16/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"That haunting voice of Grace carries on over the decades to move the soul. Brilliant album."

Dreams by Grace Slick

Jenny A. Ayres | Portland.OR | 11/15/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"After a couple of times listening to it in my CD in my car, it jammed my CD in my car and broke it and it hasn't worked again. I am not pleaseed."