Customer Reviews

Home

5 star:		(216)
4 star:		(40)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Home is the third major-label album by the Dixie Chicks. On first listen, it stands so far above the first two as to render them nearly irrelevant. It's more relaxed, less polished, and a lot more comfortable - just like home, really.

As a whole, the album is more subdued than Fly (only four songs, and the instrumental "Lil' Jack Slade" can be considered uptempo), and often more introspective (though the Chicks' collective sense of humor is still present in "White trash wedding"). Perhaps reflecting the album's title, perhaps reflecting upon changed perspectives in post-9/11 America, many of the songs convey a longing for love, the simple things in life, and the comforts of home.

In this environment, almost everything here is a highlight, but the particular standouts are "Travelin' soldier", "A home", "Godspeed (Sweet dreams)", and the cover of the Stevie Nicks-penned Fleetwood Mac tune "Landslide". The emotion in the performances is genuine, and Natalie Maines' voice has seldom sounded better.

A highly recommended album, whatever your tastes (which I add because I personally do not like much country music).

(A note to those of you with HDCD-compatible CD players: Though the back cover indicates this is an HDCD encoded disc, it is not.)

I am not a country fan, as a black man in the inner city country CD's are the last youd expect to find but in my 330+ collection of CD's you find (2) Shania Twain Faith Hill Leann Womack and the Dixie Chicks. Home. If you pull this CD off the shelf youll notice the disc is missing. It's because I actually travel with this one. This is the one of the few disc I own I can listen to from top to bottom. This is absolutely amazing yet simple. Heartfelt yet Enjoyable. It starts with Long Time Gone which has infectious vocals and great lyrics. Landslide though is the charmer here. On a personal note this song has allowed me to reflect on a lot of personal relationships and friendships. Awesome Awesome Awesome and doesn't matter if its the live version the album version or the Sheryl Crow remix . I listen to this song a lot on Sundays or when i'm sad or reflecting and ready to work on my novel. This song is picture perfect and they are to be commended for it. Traveling Soldier is an awesome song that tells a story and as the Dixie Chicks narrate it I swear i can close my eyes and visualize it like a movie. I Believe in Love is perfect perfect perfect perfect perfect!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! One of my favorites on the album definitely. More love is great. Godspeed is awesome and i let that song rock me to sleep many nights. Top of the World is a great song (i hate to sound like a broken record but all of teh acoustic slow songs are great). This album minus the country sounds very Jewel (Acoustic)/Sheryl Crow very very very very pleased and surprised once i got it after seeing the video for Landslide.

This CD is so awesome I've scratched it and need a new one.

I've also since purchased the Live CD Top of The World

Need I say more

This is my first Dixie Chicks album. They've been so highly recommended that I had to give it a try, especially after catching strains of 'Traveling Soldier' on the radio.

The Chicks really hit their fans hard on this one, because I was simply blown away by it! It's perfection to listen to, even for pop/mainstream fans. There's a heavy bluegrass feel to the entire album that doesn't distract non-country fans of the Chicks.

'Long Time Gone' is a great choice for a first single -- it's easy to listen to, with a great, catchy hook. 'Landslide' is quite possibly the best remake I've ever heard of Stevie Nicks's classic song, and the Chicks certainly do it justice! 'Traveling Soldier' is another favorite, with a very sad story-song that tugs at the heart. Their voices blend together perfectly melody-wise, and it gives me shivers just to hear it. 'White Trash Wedding' is just pure bluegrass fun, and reminds me a bit of 'Sin Wagon' from a previous record. 'Truth No 2', 'Godspeed', 'More Love' are all amazing as well.

To those on the cusp of buying this album, and are currently undecided, you should definitely go out and get 'Home'. I was not a Chicks fan before and now I think I'm going to have to go get their other two albums. They are 3 of the most talented women I've ran across musically in quite a long time, and 'Home' is a pleasurable listen.

Home is a good title for this album, as it finds the Dixie Chicks making the most of their bluegrass roots. This outstanding album begins with Long time gone, a great song about family memories. Next comes an incredible cover of Landslide, a song written by Stevie Nicks, best remembered as a member of Fleetwood Mac. Travelin' soldier is a sad song about a woman receiving letters from a soldier who gets killed in Vietnam. Those three songs set the standard for the album but there are many other fine songs here including the title track (a reflective ballad), More love (another excellent ballad) and Top of the world (not a cover of the Carpenters' classic - this is a Patty Griffin song). The other songs are also excellent.

While their two previous commercial releases, Wide open spaces and Fly, had clear bluegrass influences, those albums had a very obvious contemporary edge that is missing from this album. The return to a more traditional acoustic sound will appeal to some while alienating others, as other reviews show. As one who first discovered this group via one of their independent albums (Little ol' cowgirl), I love this album although it is still very different from that early album.

Bluegrass fans will love this but many other people will enjoy it too.

The Dixie Chicks have already done much for country music, and just plain music in general. Three girls who are a real band...they play their own instruments, write, sing, and can perform just as well. It's nice to have an act in music that is not afraid to be themselves. The Chicks weren't thinking about making another diamond selling album like their previous two when making this one. In fact, they never thought anyone would hear these songs. This is raw Dixie Chicks...it's the real thing. How refreshing-in a day in age when most artists sound alike and are clones of someone else. "Home" is the best CD I've ever listened to. I want to give it more than 5 stars because I've given other wonderful albums 5 stars...but this one is better. I give it 7. I don't think I'll ever hear another album as crafted as this one. Let's get down to the music. Completely acoustic, raw, emotional, this album has a little bit of everything. The Chicks have not lost their sense of humor, as evidenced in the tune they wrote together "White Trash Wedding". "Long Time Gone", their current hit single is another uptempo song that gets the blood flowing. But this album is more about ballads. And these ballads are good. "Travelin' Soldier", a story song about a man going away to war leaving behind the love of a woman will make about anyone weap. "I Believe In Love" is a tribute to love itself. Perhaps the two standout tracks on this album are "Godspeed", written by Radney Foster and "Top of the World" by Patty Griffin. "Godspeed" is a lullaby tune that will touch anyone who has been away from their child. And "Top of the World" is so moving, that after nearly 50 listenings, I still get choked up. It takes talent to move people that much...just with a song. And then there's the cover of Stevie Nicks' "Landslide". The Chicks do it very well and give it a relaxed, almost magical feeling. Please pick up this album. It's a rarity these days to find something so genuine. There are other good albums...but this one is better-by a landslide.

The girls strike again with another spirited album that will keep your feet a'tappin. If you are a Dixie Chick's fan you will not be disappointed, the girls have outdone themselves again. The girls share personal songs of truimph and vunerability like "More Love" a tale of the difficulties of relationships and "Lil Jack Slade", a instrumental tribute to Natalie Maines' son of the same name. My favorite is their cover of "Landslide" and the heart warming "Long Time Gone." The girls did not leave out their usual novelty song this time entitled "White Trash Wedding" with laughable lyrics like "I shouldn't be wearing white and you can't afford no ring." A great album that you can listen to all the way through. The Dixie Chicks never stray from their deep-rooted country sound and you can't help wanting to listen to their tales of their journey "Home".

Right off, this CD does not come close to the perfection of Wide Open Spaces, but it is on par with Fly. If you like the Dixie Chicks prior two albums, you will most likely enjoy this one. Don't expect to fall in love with it right off, though. It has intelligent lyrics, intricate (yet simple) musical passages, and of course...it has Natalie Maines voice.

There are some singers that make magic every time they open their mouths to sing. Natalie is one of them. She makes everything "real". If she gave you chills on the first two albums, rest assured that she continues on this album. She is at times, a friend...a storyteller...a comic...and a broken-hearted woman. And she can convey all that within the span of 10-12 songs. Buy this album simply for the voice, and realize the brilliance of her two bandmates along the way. A couple stand-out songs are Long Time Gone, Travelin' Soldier, Truth No. 2, and the two songs written by the Chicks....White Trash Wedding and Tortured, Tangled Hearts.

There are a couple songs I know I will take a while to get accustomed with....those being Godspeed (Sweet Dreams), and I Believe in Love. The melody is generic and unaffecting in the former, with the latter having simple and somewhat trite lyrics. And one song I was hoping would be amazing was Landslide. If I had never heard this song before, I would call this version a masterpiece. However.....it sadly falls short of Stevie Nick's rendition on Fleetwood Mac's album, The Dance.

This is a keeper album. And I suggest you put it into your car, pump up the volume and blast Long Time Gone as you drive. It's exhilerating.

Solid album. Love the Chicks....and not disappointed. word.

[...] "Home" is a glossier effort than "Fly" or "Wide Open Spaces," yet at the same time, probably their most earthy. Only a very few artists have been able to walk this kind of fine line, and they would number the kind of musicians and songwriters that appear on "Home" with the Dixie Chicks or as artists in their own right. I'm thinking of people like Marty Stuart, Patty Griffin, Rodney Crowell, Rosanne Cash, Ricky Scaggs or Emmylou Harris. That's the kind of vibe that "Home" gives off.

The Dixie Chicks understand that there's a small amount of space between Fleetwood Mac and "Travelin' Soldier." By not allowing the factory mentality of most Nashville recordings to interfere with the music (we won't mention the slickslop of a certain "Angry American") and carting their production/recording off to Austin Texas, "Home" neatly avoids sounding like the typical inbred clone of what Music City churns out on a weekly basis. The Dixie Chicks use instruments here that don't require amplifiers and they give the songs room to breathe, even more so when they allow the voices to just take over. No amount of studio trickery can mask the vocal talent that opens "White Trash Wedding," or that Natalie Maines has become a woman of incredible emotional range, as the CD's final two selections "Godspeed" and "Top of the World" prove. This is the kind of music represents my country to me. I just can't recommend the Dixie Chicks enough. They are the sound of the free.

Four and a half stars.

Okay, I'm not a country fan. However, I listened to this CD, and I was stunned! I didn't think that country music could possibly sound so wonderful and flawless. Their taste of old-time country and danceable beats give their tracks that unique flavor. Even if you're anti-country, I'd recommend giving "Home" a try. You may not become a bigger country fan(genre-wise), but you won't be disappointed.

After a two year hiatus and prolonged legal battle with Sony records, many music fans thought they had seen the last of the Dixie Chicks, country music's brightest shining stars. They thought wrong. The superstar Chicks are back not only with a new album and new hit single, but a new musical style as well.

For the first time since their days of playing the streetcorners of Dallas and recording for independent labels, the Dixie Chicks have traded in their high energy, mainstream sound for bluegrass and a folk flavor. The result is a stunning collection of acoustic music unlike anything heard in country music today--from the chart climbing single "Long Time Gone" to the melancholy sounds of Fleetwood Mac to fast pickin' instrumentals, the Chicks do it all. Songs such as the hilarious "White Trash Wedding," the traditional flavored "Tortured, Tangled Hearts," and "Lil' Jack Slade" usher in the Chicks' career as highly skilled bluegrass musicians, while Patty Griffin's "Truth No. 2" and "A Home" stay true to the sound that made them famous. On HOME, the Chicks also pay tribute to their country and bluegrass influences with renditions of their favorite songs. Their cover of Bruce Robison's "Travelin' Soldier" is as hauntingly beautiful as the original, Radney Foster's "Godspeed (Sweet Dreams)" is an anthem for Natalie Maines' and Emily Robison's newfound motherhood, and their cover of Stevie Nicks' "Landslide" is nothing short of captivating.

With country artists such as Patty Loveless, Dolly Parton, and Kelly Willis trying their hands at acoustic music, the Dixie Chicks may appear to be just another group jumping on the bluegrass bandwagon. However, one listen to HOME will prove to any music fan that this is far from the case. The band's roots are in traditional music, and their amazing musical abilities on this album prove that this is where they belong. The Dixie Chicks galvanized the attention of the industry with WIDE OPEN SPACES, wrote their fortunes in stone with FLY, and there is no doubt that HOME will further their reputation as some of the music world's most skilled and talented musicians.