STACK #204 Oct 2021

MUSIC FEATURE

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Each month we handpick a collection of reissues, limited editions or just straight classic long-players that deserve a place

in any record collection. Words Paul Jones, Amy Flower & Zoë Radas

OZZY OSBOURNE NO MORE TEARS 180GRAM VINYL (1991) To coincide with its 30th anniversary, Ozzy’s No More Tears gets a fine gatefold double- album reissue and pressed on 180gram

vinyl. Following the untimely death of guitar supremo, Randy Rhoads, Ozzy had worked with several lead guitarists before recruiting the talented – and longest-tenured - Zakk Wylde in the late ‘80s. Wylde’s heavy

snarling riffs and explosive solos lead 11 songs on No More Tears , and he co-wrote all but one of them. Ozzy, who struggled with sobriety throughout much of the recording process, enlisted a new production

team to work on the album, who successfully reshaped his sound, dragging his sound into the new decade. The record was a commercial success, producing a string of hits, Road To Nowhere , I Don’t Want To Change The World and Mama , I’m Coming Home , a song that resonated with US soldiers cycling out of combat in the Middle East. No More Tears was Ozzy at his most adventurous; it’s an album he hasn’t surpassed in 30 years. TOP TRACK: No More Tears FAST FACT: Motorhead’s Lemmy collaborated on six songs for the album, four of which made the final cut.

STEVIE NICKS BELLA DONNA (1981)

The power of Stevie Nicks to draw listeners into a dark, fairy-tale realm – where music instantly becomes visual, a series of wavelengths sifted through crystal and cloud – is unparalleled. It was a talent already well-celebrated by the time Nicks began work on her first solo album in 1979, at that stage still neck-deep in sessions for Fleetwood Mac's third album Tusk (1979). And Nicks had no dearth of material; elbowing for room between two other songwriters within Fleetwood Mac meant she'd gathered oodles of self-penned, unrecorded songs, and needed only to set them down to begin. Eventually released in 1981, Bella Donna is the sound of Nicks extending the chain, adding links in a sequence that moved her out of Fleetwood Mac's immediate rule towards some of her most enduring songs, including Don Henley duet Leather and Lace , Stop Draggin' My Heart Around with great friend Tom Petty (and his band the Heartbreakers) and the lap steel-licked After The Glitter Fades . From the opening notes of the title track, we learn that piano is the hardwood spine of this record, but even in treble-heavy piano moments ( Think About It ), Nicks' songs never waver towards poxy territory, thanks to the exceptional earthiness of her tone. Classic Leather and Lace is a lesson for every bedroom pop provocateur/aspirant in trusting your own magic; even when signature track Edge of Seventeen breaks from its chugging hi-hat build into unleashed power, its voltage emanates straight from Nicks' vocal delivery. An utterly magical, must-have sonic spellbook. TOP TRACK: Edge of Seventeen FAST FACT: The track Sleeping Angel , completed for the record but cut due to space limitations, plays in the Fast Times At Ridgemont High scene where Stacy (Jennifer Jason Leigh) waits in vain for Mike to pick her up for her doctor's appointment.

PEARL JAM MTV UNPLUGGED (2021)

There were bands that the MTV Unplugged setting worked for and bands where it didn’t. Pearl Jam plant a Converse All Star firmly in the former camp. This is nascent and unpolished Pearl Jam, a band firmly on the rise playing here off the back of their first tour for Ten . The band recorded eight stripped-down numbers for the

show, seven of which have made it onto this album. All but six songs from the setlist are drawn from debut Ten , including Black , an emotional and mesmerising song played acoustically. And despite

the unplugged premise, the stomping Even Flow , Alive and Jeremy are performed with intense energy, Eddie Vedder leaving nothing in the tank. Originally captured for MTV back in early 1992, it’s surprising that such an exceptional recording – produced here in a beautiful gatefold sleeve - took so long to be committed to vinyl. TOP TRACK: Black FAST FACT: The setlist Pearl Jam recorded that day live on March 16, 1992, was completely cut up and rearranged for the televised Unplugged performance.

86 OCTOBER 2021

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