Customer Reviews

Nick of Time

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Bonnie Raitt just gets better with age. An old adage that could've been written for her. Her physical beauty, her love for her craft, her passion just get stronger, truer, more penetratingly *honest*.

She is one of the best blues guitarists I've ever listened to; her playing is pure emotion - not just technical skill.

Her talent makes her unique in a world of copies. She sings the powerful, sexy, yet purely feminine song of any woman, all women. Her music speaks of things we all know: love, pain, failure, regret, loss, but also growth, self-discovery, getting older, getting wiser. Renewal.

This is one of her best CD's to-date, though perhaps not *the* best. I believe Bonnie still has more songs to write... in her life as well as her studio.

A gifted musician.

Unless you were born after 1989 or else have dropped in from another planet since then, you have probably heard the song "Love Letter" from this album. It's only the most gritty, earthy, and outstanding torch song in rock. It was also the lead single from this album, and the rest of the album is no letdown. The songs here run the gamut from experienced toughness to aching vulnerability, hitting a lot of bases in between. Raitt's expressive singing and first-rate guitar playing take these quality songs and drive them home very effectively.

"Nick Of Time" dominated the Grammy awards and the charts in 1989, and rightfully so. It is one terrific album and earned Bonnie Raitt recognition that was long overdue. She labored long in relative obscurity before hitting it big with this one. Built on solid rock tinged with blues and country overtones, the songs here all feature mature lyrics delivered with real feeling. Listen to the title song. Nobody over thirty can fail to identify with those words. "Love Letter" is my personal favorite song, but I also especially like "Thing Called Love", "Cry On My Shoulder", "Nobody's Girl", "Have A Heart" and "I Will Not Be Denied".

This is a truly outstanding album. Give it a listen and I think you'll agree. Very highly recommended.

Bonnie's recording career with Warner career had ended with some critics thinking that she was finished as a recording artist. They - and Warner - were proved wrong with this, her Capitol debut album, which was more successful than any of her Warner albums. The basic blues-rock style is still there, but this album is a little smoother, so appealing to a wider public. Winning a Grammy award for this album further boosted Bonnie's career.

The album is mainly filled with moody ballads, perhaps reflecting Bonnie's personal life when the album was recorded although Bonnie only wrote two songs - the first track (Nick of time) and the last track (The road's my middle name). The tempo picks up slightly for Thing called love (a John Hiatt song, not to be confused with the completely different Johnny Cash song with a similar title), Real man and The road's my middle name.

Apart from singing, Bonnie plays an instrument on most tracks - one of piano, guitar or slide guitar. Bonnie is supported by a variety of musicians, usually between three and five per track. Two tracks feature just one instrument each, giving them a folksy feel. On Nobody's girl, Bonnie sings while Chuck Domanico plays acoustic bass. On I ain't gonna let you break my heart again, Bonnie sings while Herbie Hancock plays piano.

This is an excellent album, well deserving of all the accolades - but then, a lot of Bonnie's earlier music deserved such accolades and didn't get them.

This isn't a compilation of Greatest Hits, but it could be. Even if all the tracks on this wonderful release were not commercial hits, Bonnie Raitt proves with this one that she can play with the big boys and come out unscathed.

Nothing tops "Have A Heart", a fantastic performance of a great song, which always makes me sigh, no matter how many times I've heard it. There is a longing, a need for love in Raitt's vocals that just grabs you by the throat and makes you listen.

Other stand-outs are the appropriately named title track, "Nick of Time", the more bluesy-raunchy "Real Man" and the melancholic "Nobody's Girl". But there's really not a bad song on this CD.

Nick Of Time by Bonnie Raitt is probibly one of the essential blues-rock cd's of all time. Songs such as Thing Called Love and Love Letter draw a perfect line between blues and rock. meanwhile songs such as Have A Heart and Nick Of Time are perfect along side hits by Michael Bolton and Gloria Estefan on easy listening radio. and theres even some folkish/country style songs on there too. In short a great Cd. One that deserved it's Grammy for album of the year (it won in 1990 for the music of 1989)

This cd looking back, was just a primer for what bonnie raitt was all about and the songs on this cd capitalized and hit
an emotional button so many Americans were missing in music.
Bonnie captures her love for so many styles of music, particually R & B styles and rock/blues and country/blues she
has done for so many years without much recognition. Bonnies emotions really pour out of this great record, no wonder she took off after this set! Although many talk about the song "NICK OF TIME" as being somewhat soft, supermarket tribe,
just listen to the words to this masterpiece of songwriting
and the flow makes more sense, reminds me of an Anita Baker
at times. All people needed to do was connect on a cut and
they sure did with "thing called love". The video was all over
the country with VH1 pushing it on heavy rotation. I overheard
college guys talking about NICK of TIME in a music store as
they looked the cd over. They were all excited about her slide
guitar playing so I knew it was breaking through to the public.
At the same time "have a heart" was a minor radio hit, not
quite making a top 40 hit but close. This song tapped into
some heavy feelings as well that many had lived through or
going through. The roadhouse blues of Real Man, the classic
R & B styles of "i will not be denied", the jazzy, "I won't
let you break my heart again" gave so much about who Bonnie
was but to dig deeper and listen to "Love Letter" and the blues
closer "The road is my middle name" and you got a collection
of haunting blues/rock with some funk and R & B thrown into
a smash stew that finally got Bonnie Raitt a new fan base
and some long time fans finally smiling. This collection
deserved everything is achieved and was just a primer for
another outstanding cd to follow, her biggest smash "LUCK OF THE DRAW", which dug deeper and had more fun and more classic
songs to take out onto the road, Bonnies homebase.

What's not to like about this cd? Perfect production and arranging. Great vocals and musical performances. And if I had to choose a song to dance around the den floor to it would be "Love Letter" without a doubt. Bonnie blends blues with funk and rock and roll effortlessly and this album surely deserved all the accolades it received. A must-have for your collection of great music.

Length:: 0:56 Mins

You're having two couples over to dinner, and loading up the CD player. Be sure to include Nick of Time. The first (title) track pumps smooth energy into the room with a catchy bass line and a catchy tune, and it just gets better. "Cry on my Shoulder" gets you down, but "Real Man" pumps you up again. All told, a great CD for anyone's pop-country crossover collection.

This is my first Bonnie Raitt album and I am hooked for life! I enjoyed one song after another on this album, and when I heard "Too Soon To Tell" it was like "wow, I love this stuff"!