On September 29, Fleetwood Mac kicks off its sold-out On with the Show tour in Minneapolis, Minnesota, marking the band’s first tour with returning member Christine McVie in sixteen years. The same day, Stevie Nicks will unveil her latest solo album, but it’s one with a twist. 24 Karat Gold – Songs from the Vault features songs penned by Nicks between 1969 and 1995, but rather than presenting archival recordings of the tracks, all have been newly recorded by the singer in Nashville and Los Angeles. The double-LP vinyl edition arrives on September 29, with the CD following one week later on October 7.
24 Karat Gold is Nicks’ first solo album since 2011’s In Your Dreams. These reworkings of Nicks’ vintage unheard material have been co-produced by Nicks, Eurythmics’ Dave Stewart and guitar great Waddy Wachtel. According to an interview with the Associated Press, Nicks’ inspiration actually came from viewing bootlegs of these songs on YouTube, leading her to make the decision to fully record them anew. “I call them my ’24 karat gold’ songs,” she commented. Most were written between 1969 and 1987, with a couple of tunes dating to 1994-1995. “Each song is a lifetime. Each song has a soul. Each song has a purpose. Each song is a love story,” Nicks remarked in a press release. “They represent my life behind the scenes, the secrets, the broken hearts, the broken hearted and the survivors. These songs are the memories — the 24 karat gold rings in the blue box. These songs are for you.”
After the jump: more details on this set and its songs, plus the full track list and pre-order links!
The artwork for 24 Karat Gold will feature never-before-seen Polaroid photographs taken by Nicks throughout her career. The deluxe edition of the CD release, available only at Nicks' own website, will boast an expanded book filled with 48 pages of pictures from Nicks’ private collection, along with two bonus tracks (“Watch Chain” and “Twisted” – the latter of which was included in a presumably different version on Nicks’ Enchanted box set) added to the standard 14-song lineup. The vinyl version will also include these two additional tracks.
Lead single “The Dealer” arrived last week; the song had its origins in the Rumours days and was recorded in demo form numerous times including for Fleetwood Mac’s Tusk as well as for Nicks’ solo albums Bella Donna and Rock a Little before being relegated to the vaults. As of this writing, a number of the demos referred to by Nicks are still available on YouTube – including “Mabel Normand,” named for the silent film comedienne and lover of director Mack Sennett who also inspired Jerry Herman’s Broadway musical Mack and Mabel; “If You Were My Love,” “Watch Chain” and “Belle Fleur” from the Bella Donna era; “All the Beautiful Worlds” circa The Wild Heart; and “Cathouse Blues,” proposed for a second Buckingham Nicks album.
Nicks’ new versions of these rare tunes will arrive from Reprise Records on vinyl on September 29 and on CD on October 7. You’ll find pre-order links below!
Stevie Nicks, 24 Karat Gold: Songs from the Vault: Standard Edition (Reprise, 2014)
2-LP Vinyl + Download Card: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
Standard Edition CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
Deluxe Edition CD: Exclusive to StevieNicksOfficial.com
Standard Edition Track Listing:
- Starshine
- The Dealer
- Mabel Normand
- Blue Water
- Cathouse Blues
- 24 Karat Gold
- Hard Advice
- Lady
- I Don't Care
- All The Beautiful Worlds
- Belle Fleur
- If You Were My Love
- Carousel
- She Loves Him Still
Deluxe Edition Track Listing:
- Starshine
- If You Were My Love
- Mabel Normand
- Twisted (Exclusive Track)
- 24 Karat Gold
- Belle Fleur
- All the Beautiful Worlds
- Lady
- I Don't Care
- Watch Chain (Exclusive Track)
- Hard Advice
- Carousel
- Blue Water
- Cathouse Blues
- The Dealer
- She Loves Him Still
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I'm sure her fans would want to hear the original recordings. Why not a deluxe 2 disc set that includes all the orignial recordings on a second disc? Another lost opportunity.
How I wish they just released the archive material without messin with it... Nicks has aged gracefully, but her voice at 66 is certainly not comparable to the 20/30-year-old version of herself
Funny thing - I checked on YouTube and the demos are still there. I hope Warner doesn't get them pulled. That said, the few I listened to were very rough, so now I can understand why these may not have been suitable for an archival project.
"The Dealer" sounds like it was recorded in a shoe box! I hope the rest of the album doesn't have the same kind of sound quality.
"The Dealer" is filler. Warner did the same by releasing "Secret Love" back in February of 2011 - three months before "In Your Dreams" arrived in May - and "Secret Love" was definitely filler song from that project. Though "The Dealer" has received a lot of Youtube hits for an artist of her age, it's not really designed for radio, probably like most of this project, it's designed for her hardcore fans that have listened to these songs in their 'demo' forms for 30+ years. Sadly, the only way for Stevie to appear on the radio today is through a new artist sampling her (like Destiny's Child did with 'Bootylicious') or her doing a cameo in a song with Rihanna or Katy Perry or Sia.
But at least at 66 years old she still feels like fooling with trying to keep her name in the news. If the woman never puts out another thing in her life she has still recorded some of the most beloved music of all time. Songs like "Rhiannon," "Gypsy," "Seven Wonders," "Stand Back," "Edge of Seventeen," "Leather and Lace," "Sara," and, of course, "Landslide," will live forever and far outlive anyone reading this. That's a pretty powerful thing to be able to say about yourself - or anyone - "the art you created will live forever and continue to touch people's lives for the rest of time."
I'm thrilled for her and continue to be proud and promote everything she does. "The Dealer" wouldn't have been my choice for a first single, but her hardcore fans are happy to finally have it in a completed version that they can rock out to. So since she said this project was for her fans that have had these songs for all these years, that's who she's marketing it to and if she picks up a few more fans along the way, that's great. But it's nice to see someone of her caliber giving a big nod to those of us who have stood by her and really clung to every word she has said through all these years.