LINDA RONSTADT: Hasten Down The Wind

Original released on LP Asylum 7E-1072

(US 1976, August 21)

Some reviewers here said this album is a guilty pleasure.  Why?  Linda Ronstadt has a great voice, great musicians, and good taste in songs. Maybe some people consider this music to be hollow, shallow and facile, but I don't agree. Ronstadt catches perfectly the worn-out, rock/pop zeitgeist of the mid-1970's more than any other California artists out there. She generously gives great songwriters like Karla Bonoff and Warren Zevon the exposure they deserve. So she's not a wild poet like Patti Smith, but so what?  She is who she is, and does what she does well, so well that decades later her music stands up. Her own song "Try Me Again" is the best song on this album. There's also interesting fusion of country rock and reagge on deliciously melodic "Give One Heart" (that should have been released as a single). Other worthwhile tracks include: "Crazy" (beautiful rendition of this well known classic), "Hasten Down The Wind" and "If He's Ever Near". This album is not as good as "Heart Like A Wheel" or later-released "Simple Dreams" but still stands test of time as one of Linda's best moments captured on record. (in RateYourMusic)