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674 of 788 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
No walking on egg shells with Dixie Chicks' outstanding new album., May 23, 2006
Three years after the controversy surrounding the Home tour, the Dixie Chicks are back with a bang on their latest studio album, Taking the Long Way. Receiving some songwriting and musical help from friends like Neil Finn, John Mayer, Sheryl Crow, Chad Smith, Don Wilson, and Pete Yorn, the Chicks' Natalie Maines, Martie Maguire, and Emily Robison deliver an incredible, mature record destined for success, one that will greatly please long time fans and win over some new converts. This is the Dixie Chicks at their best, and it's been a long time coming.
The Long Way Around kicks off the album with a beautiful melody and chorus, with some of their strongest vocal harmonies ever set against a wonderful Tom Petty-like guitar sound. This is the way albums should begin. Easy Silence is a tender piano ballad with some beautiful violin and a great vocal by Natalie. Not Easy To Make Nice delves into some tough lyrics,"they say time heals everything..but I'm still waiting" but surrounds it in some unbelievably gentle strings and a great chorus. Everybody Knows and Bitter End are more traditional country ballads, while Lullaby is a 6-minute track that pays homage to its title. Lubbock or Leave It is a banjo-driven rockabilly track that will make you move on the dance floor, even as the cleverly sarcastic lyrics make you listen a few more times.
Silent House and Favorite Year are ballads that touch on the loss of family and friends. Voice Inside My Head combines acoustic and a wonderful slide guitar with a endearing chorus, "everytime I'm feeling down, I wonder what would it be like with you around." This Cali-beach sound continues on the slinky track I Like It, before slowing down on the bluesy ballad Baby Hold On (with John Mayer on lead guitar) and So Hard (a song which grows on you with every listen). The album closes with the uplifting and soulful I Hope, with its church organ and choral sound. A great way to end this amazing album.
Producer Rob Rubin concentrates the Dixie Chicks sound, drawing out the best of their songwriting and musical ability and making the tracks tighter and more focused. Its 14 tracks clock in at a lengthy 68 minutes, averaging about 4 minutes a song, a nice change in an industry where 45 minute records are the norm. Vocally the ladies are as wonderful as always, but their musicianship also impresses here. They have matured greatly in their songwriting and their lyrics, creating a distinct emotional palette that grows with every listen. Love or hate their politics, as musicians they make some of the best music today. Highly Recommended and one of 2006's Top 5 albums.
A.G. Corwin
St.Louis, MO
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101 of 115 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
fat chick loving the chicks...., May 24, 2006
never been one to write a review...never been one to rush out the first day an album is released to purchase it...but I did for the Chicks.....it gives me a chance in some small way to give back to a group who's music has given me so much pleasure over the years. The first time I heard "Not Ready to Make Nice" actually gave me goosebumps....any album that can do that deserves 5 stars. C&W music stations in Houston had been my steady staple since I was a preteen, but when they boycotted the Chicks - I boycotted them(c&w stations) - now my music library is full of all kinds of music you wouldn't expect from a 40 year old woman - everything from the Blackeyed Peas to Bowling for Soup to the Chieftans....the narrow minded people who turned me off c&w actually broadened my world..
btw....if anyone in the C&W music industry should be boycotted for offensive and insulting remarks....consider Toby Kieth for his song "Running Block"(from White Trash With Money).....nothing like offending and insulting every "Fat Chick" in America......nowadays there are probably more of them than there are Bush supporters.......
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45 of 49 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Finally, great music with a point of view., May 25, 2006
I understand that Reba McEntire commented negatively about the Chicks on a recent country awards show. Given that Ms. McEntire hasn't been musically interesting for many years, that's quite a compliment to the Chicks, who apparently present a significant artistic and commercial challenge to the repetitive aural stink that country music has become in the last ten years (unless one assumes that "Honky Tonk Badonkadonk" is high art...and, by the way, I find its sheer stupidity far more insulting than any comment ever expressed by the Chicks).
This is the only CD of contemporary music that I have purchased so far this year that hasn't been a disappointment. I am not a Chicks "fan"...I bought "Wide Open Spaces" when it was first released but no other of their CDs. I purchased this one on the strength of the "Not Ready to Make Nice" video, the clip of "Taking the Long Way" shown on Amazon, and a short review of the CD in Newsweek which compared it favorably to my favorite band Fleetwood Mac. That proved to be an excellent comparison, because the very things I love about the Mac at its best are also prevalent in this CD.
If country radio doesn't play it -- well, really, who the heck cares.
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