Customer Reviews

Nicolette

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Nicolette Larson was an artist that really connected with people.
The first time I heard "Lotta Love" I was smitten, but the tongue-in-cheek "Rhumba Girl" had me hooked for life. This was one of my favorite albums when I was in high school. I would never have admitted to liking country back then, but "Angels Rejoiced" is so engaging that it defies genre. Although I'm Danish-American, I am also a bit of a Francophile and had just begun studying French when this album came out, so I was thrilled that a pop/country singer would do a song in French! "French Waltz", therefore, has always been an album highlight for me.

Nicolette has been raked over the coals for her versatility. On this stellar solo debut, Nicolette sang pop like a pop singer, country like a country singer and rock like a rock singer.
...anyone heard of Linda Ronstadt or Buffy Sainte-Marie?
My point is that this debut should have come as a surprise to no one. By the time this album came out, Nicolette had extensive backing vocal credits on Emmylou Harris, Linda Ronstadt, Dolly Parton and Neil Young albums, to name a few. Nicolette had already proven what a gifted and versatile vocalist she was and was known as a singer's singer. Her pure soprano voice had an accessible quality that few in the business could equal. The only ones that come to mind (with that quality) are Anne Dorthe Michelsen of Denmark and Patrice Rushen.

If your taste leans more to the pop side of Nicolette, (Lotta Love, You Send Me) you should also get my personal favorite, her second album "In the Nick of Time". If you really appreciate the variety on "Nicolette", you might also enjoy Buffy Sainte-Marie's album "She Used to Wanna Be a Ballerina", which includes several tracks with Neil Young's band Crazy Horse and songs in French and Spanish.

Nicolette's CDs were long out of print, so get them while you can!

Propelled by one of that year's biggest singles [the radio-omnipresent "Lotta Love"], Nicolette Larson's freshman LP, "Nicolette," not only went gold [over a half-million units "moved," in Billboard lingo], but also received a veritable standing ovation from critics of the day. The praise was well-deserved, and a wonderful new talent entered the music scene in a very big way ["Lotta Love" was a first single and a top-ten hit, and was one of 1978's most-played and most-bought singles [it ended up, I think, as the 38th most popular single of 1978]].

The trouble with "Nicolette," however, was that the album sufferred from an identity crisis. This identity crisis created a praise-worthy LP, for sure, but resulted in a fickle public that didn't appreciate the many musical shapes/genres presented in "Nicolette," which was to become apparent with the sales of Nicolette's three followup LPs on Warners [which, ironically enough, were all more consistent in voice and musical styles than "Nicolette"]. Pop music customers then, as now, were tempted to try out Nicolette's first LP based purely on how much they liked the album's monster first single, "Lotta Love." But where the critics absolutely loved the entire "Nicolette" presentation, consumers were very much confused listening to the LP's country tracks ["Angels Rejoiced," "Come Early Mornin'"] and rock-slanted tunes ["Can't Get Away from You," "Baby, Don't You Do It"]. Hoping to find "Lotta Love" in the LP's 10 other tracks, buyers were ultimately disappointed when they found country and rock instead of more of the same kind of pop sound that they enjoyed with "Lotta Love."

That consistency problem would be needlessly corrected on future Nicolette LPs, with most of the tracks on second effort "In the Nick of Time" and third-time-at-bat "Radioland" hailing more of a solid pop sound; but the absence of a runaway hit single coming out of those future efforts resulted in weak sales and critics who were unkind and asking, rightfully perhaps, "What's Happened to Nicolette Larson?"

"Nicolette" is a classic album, the best of any of Nicolette's four pop tries and even her two country stints ["...Say When" and "Rose of My Heart"]. Sadly, what made the album so damned good also probably resulted in Nicolette's decline: customers who bought "Nicolette" and only liked one or two tracks because the album strayed too far from the pop sensibilities of hit-single "Lotta Love," were not going to take a chance again on anything again from Nicolette, a reality made even more difficult from Warners' weak marketing on future Nicolette LPs, and single releases that barely made dents on Billboard's Hot 100 Singles.

But, identity crisis or not, "Nicolette" shines as one 1978's finest LPs, well-crafted through and through. It's hard to imagine a singer who can easily move from hillbilly country to pure pop to rock, and sound as if she wasn't a pop singer just trying her hand at country or rock, sound as if she was a native to country and rock music, as well as a talented pop musician, but Nicolette Larson was just that kind of singer. Her vocal talents were chameleon-like, and "Nicolette" made us clearly aware of those rich vocal talents. It's hard to tell in which genre Nicolette felt the most comfortable, because she nails all them so incredibly well.

Adding to the praise, adding to the customer confusion, surely, was Ted Templeman's production. One listening to "Angels Rejoiced" might very well think he was listening to a country album; one hearing "Can't Get Away from You" might well assume he's listening to a Pat-Benatar type. There was no tainting these non-pop tracks with any of the real trappings of pop music--the country tracks are country through and through, the rock tunes are rock through and through--and this fluidity of and strict adherence to the sounds of those other genres [rock and country] without even a nod toward pop music--created a mood, a sound, that defined the LP as kind of an outsider that got lucky to break through to the inside on the basis of one hit single. The same swaying mood, the same "you won't pigeon-hole me on the basis of 'Lotta Love'" feeling that imbued the LP with sheer wonder, however, turned off too many people, a too sad fact and cold truth of the music business. We don't seem to mind our pop artists covering country, rock and soul songs, as long as those covers are still largely grounded in all of the trappings of pop music [to wit, Juice Newton's original single release of "The Sweetest Thing [I've Ever Known] went nowhere for the artist who had just scored a top-ten with "Angel of the Morning"; the producers quickly wised up and took out the country-music trappings of "Sweetest Thing," namely the steel guitars, and the re-released, pop-sanctioned new single started climbing up the charts].

"Nicolette" was my favorite release from Nicolette, although I didn't buy it for "Lotta Love," unlike most people ["Lotta Love," in fact, was one of the most annoying songs on the radio at that time to me]. I heard one of the album's other tracks, the rocker "Baby, Don't You Do It," on an FM station in 1979, and it was on the basis of that song that I decided that I just had to have "Nicolette." I made a wise choice: the album doesn't have a single weak cut on it.

"Rhumba Girl" shines as the album's second single release should have, but, despite being a Billboard "Top Adds" single throughout the country in the first few weeks of its release, "Rhumba Girl" could only get to number 53 on the charts. Nicolette's cover of the Sam Cooke tune, "You Send Me," equally placed her alongside of her gal-pal Linda Ronstadt as an artist whose recording of a song was surely the definitive and best recording of that song. As a single, however, "You Send Me" failed to gain any notice.

The album's fourth single was around forever, it seemed, but still couldn't return Nicolette to the top 40: "Give A Little," its sweet sentiment and lush backing vocals aside [provided by Linda Ronstadt], may have been a radio favorite back in 1979, but heavy airplay didn't result in favorable sales, perhaps because most of the people who liked and would have bought the song as a single had already bought the album the song was on.

Other noteworthy songs here are the pop-friendly ballad "French Waltz," which surely also turned off American customers with its French-language chorus; "Mexican Divorce," a Burt Bacharach tune given a memorable treatment by Nicolette; and the album's closing tune, the J.D. Souther ballad "Last in Love." Nicolette's voice shines on all the tracks of the album, and there's real emotion that you can hear throughout the album: Nicolette's vocals turn sheer melancholic on "Last in Love"; "Baby, Don't You Do It" is delivered with all of the urgency of a lover angry enough to do something that would bring pain to an ex; and it's hard not to see the smirk on Nicolette's face when listening to the suggestive "Rhumba Girl."

So, if you haven't heard the album, but wondered what else Nicolette could do besides "Lotta Love," buy the album and be very surprised at not only all of the risk-taking that she and her producers took on the album, but also at one of pop music's most under-rated and under-noticed talents of the 20th century. And if you've heard the album, but failed to get it when Warners re-released it on CD back in 1997 or 1998,get it now while you can. It was a gem right out of the box, as they say.

"Nicolette" is a thoroughly enjoyable LP, identity crisis or not. Repeated listens will surely open the pop purist's heart to the appealing sounds of country and rock music. Repeated listens will surely convince anyone of the album's simple genius.

Nicolette Larson was a talented, nuanced vocalist who is greatly missed. Her debut recording was a winner. Released in 1978, the album was an eclectic mix of songs from a diverse group of songwriters: Neil Young, Jesse Winchester, Holland-Dozier-Holland, Burt Bacharach, and Sam Cooke, among others. Out of all of Nicolette's albums, this was always the most accessible to me.

I always maintained that the mix of "Lotta Love" broadcast on AM radio during its chart run was different than the album and single releases (which are the same). I remember a slightly-slowered tempo on the radio mix. I never could substantiate this, though, but that's how I remember it.

My two favorite songs on the disc are Nicolette's interpretations of Adam Mitchell's "French Waltz," which is beautiful, and Bob McDill's "Come Early Morning," which foreshadowed her move to country music a decade later.

In 1979, a brilliant career in pop music seemed inevitable for Nicolette Larson. Her debut album showed that she was a versatile young vocalist, full of promise. From it came the big hit, "Lotta Love", which received a "lotta" airplay (Still does!). She was nominated as Best New Artist by The Grammys. After that, I stopped hearing about her. I never knew why, because at that time there was no Internet nor even MTV or VH1 to keep us updated on what artists were doing. But I loved her album, and I continued to play it now and then all thru the 80's and early 90's. Now I've bought it again, on CD. When she recorded this album, Nicolette seized the opportunity to show the world what she could do. She excels in a variety of musical settings that I would sum up collectively as a hybrid of the styles of Carole King and Linda Ronstadt. She is sassy and earthy in "Rhumba Girl", but sweet and happy in "You Send Me". "Mexican Divorce" has Latin rhythms mixed with country sounds, and country is in full force in "Angels Rejoiced" and "Come Early Mornin". She is effective with a heavier rock sound in "Can't Get Away From You", and the rock is funkified in "Baby, Don't You Do It". And she is at her very best in the soft rock ballads "Give A Little" and "Last In Love", AND, saving the best for last, "French Waltz". The chorus of this track is in French, and Nicolette handles it beautifully. The entire album is very well produced; the sound is excellent throughout. I had forgotten just how good it was until today when I played the CD, after not hearing my old LP for a good while.

In 1997, I heard that Nicolette had passed away. I still don't know why her career stalled when it did, but I am hopeful that it was for a positive reason, such as a decision to devote her time to her family. Whatever the case may be, Nicolette, I thank you for the "lotta love" that goes on and on due to your beautiful recordings. As far as I'm concerned, you did attain superstardom!

Hard to believe it's been almost 30 years since this record/8-track/cassette came out, and I've been trying to find the CD for a few years now. The good news is that it sounds better than ever and I am reminded what a tragic loss it was when Nicolette Larson left this world. What I like about this CD is that the arrangements are tight, it has good sonic clarity and Nicolette gives us a wide variety of styles -- from the playful 'Rhumba Girl' to the pensive 'Last In Love'.

Add this gem to your colletion.

I've been looking in the stores for years to get Nicolette's music on CD. Silly me...shoulda looked on Amazon.com first! She is an artist, like so many others, who isn't/wasn't as commercially successful as she deserved to be. RIP, Nicolette...

All you have to do is review YouTube videos to know you want to own her CDs. She has such a sweet voice and her spunky attitude makes joy in listening. It is so sad that she is gone and so good that she left us such beautiful music to enjoy.

I have always loved and admired the artistry of Nicolette Larson. I remember the release of this album, as I was in my early teens at the time. I saw and heard Nicolette performing on television what was to become her signature song, the Neil Young penned, "Lotta Love" I fell in love with the song and from that moment thereafter I was a Nicolette Larson fan. I purchased this disc because of the memories, and to commemorate the passing of a truly wonderful artist and entertainer. Great music is often timeless and unforgettable and sometimes takes on a life of its own. The music becomes even more so when the artist is just as unforgettable...and beloved.
Ms. Larson had such an amazing voice, so powerful, and yet so expressive and emotionally evocative with an underlying vulnerability. Released in 1978, Nicolette's "Lotta Love" shot up the charts to rest in the American Top 10 in 1979 and was certified gold, sealing Nicolette Larson's legacy as the crown princess of California Rock.
The entire album is delicious of course, but my favorite song is the beautifully rendered "Lotta Love"
This song has a special place in my heart because whenever I listen to it, I recall memories of my Grandmother, who raised me from the time I was an infant until her death approximately a year and a half after the release of this album.
I was profoundly shocked and saddened when Nicolette Larson passed away due to complications of Cerebral Edema and Liver failure, at age 45. It was like a part of my childhood had died along with her. As I look back at a childhood marred by misfortune and loss, I can't imagine that time in my life without Ms. Larson's unique musical contributions, because if my life were a movie, Nicolette's music would definitely be part of the soundtrack. I will always recall with great fondness and appreciation the beautiful young woman with the glorious mane of hair and soaring elemental voice reverberating down through the corridors of time. Who knew or could have predicted that "Lotta Love" 3 minutes and 10 seconds of pure soulful pop-rock-country would bestow upon Nicolette Larson that rarest of gifts...Immortality.

Rest In Peace
Nicolette Larson
(1952-1997)

RELATED ACTS:

Linda Ronstadt
Neil Young
Emmylou Harris
Dolly Parton
Jackson Browne
The Eagles
Michael McDonald
Christopher Cross

I've been looking everywhere for this CD. I used to sing along to the album in the 80s as a teen. I couldn't believe that I remembered every word as if it's been only yesterday! Love her soulful-country style.

Loretta Lynn's younger sister. This was a great CD when it first came out in the 1970s and it's still great. Especially fun to listen and sing to with the car roof down on a nice spring day (e.g., Rhumba Girl, Lotta Love). And her baby lullaby CD (Sleep Baby, Sleep) is awesome for new parents!!!