Product Description

Not many modern country legends have traveled through theircareers with the wherewithal, grace and vision of Emmylou Harris. More than twenty years after helping Gram Parsons reinvent country with so-called "Cosmic American music", Harrisis still tinkering with the genre's songwriting conventionsand the sounds she uses to illustrate the words she sings. Enter Daniel Lanois: erstwhile protege of Brian Eno, producer to U2, Bob Dylan and Robbie Robertson, and a visionary artist in his own right who mixes the Louisiana music of his Acadian ancestry with the ambient settings of his modernist mentor. On WRECKING BALL, he is the perfect foil for Harris' spiritual explorations, casting her in a light that has little in common with Nashville's neon glow.
Lanois' reverb-soaked recording technique and odd instrumentation decisions give WRECKING BALL its aura, wrapping the album in a mysticalveil. They also free Harris to dive deeper into the lyricalideas of the songs, and emerge with clear spiritual conveyances. Steve Earle's "Goodbye" is a rhythmically sprawling reopening of an old wound, as Earle himself sits in on the proceedings, gently fingerpicking the melody in front of Lanois' electric-guitar washes. "Deeper Well" is Harris and Lanois' idiosyncratic take on gospel bluegrass--U2's Larry Mullen,Jr. pounds a rolling north African beat over a gray din, while acoustic guitars, piano progressions and irreverent vocal snippets echo around Harris' search for "a holier grail".
WRECKING BALL's move away from traditional foundations ismost apparent in a cover of Jimi Hendrix's "May This Be Love". Instead of taking a storyteller's approach, Harris and Lanois treat the song as a declaration--a duet between their voices and multiple guitar tracks, with Mullen adding a faint rhythm. The singers give themselves over to the upliftmentand blind trust the lyrics describe, as the prickly distortions and loops that accompany them supply the reality check of their drab modern surroundings.

Track Listing

1. Where Will I Be
2. Goodbye
3. All My Tears
4. Wrecking Ball
5. Goin' Back To Harlan
6. Deeper Well
7. Every Grain Of Sand
8. Sweet Old World
9. May This Be Love
10. Orphan Girl
11. Blackhawk
12. Waltz Across Texas Tonight

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #146165 in Music
• Released on: 1995-09-28
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
Emmylou Harris's formula has been to match a crack crew of left-of-centre country players with an assortment of tasteful tunes and head into the studio with a non-intrusive producer. Now and then (most notably the 1980 bluegrass collection Roses in the Snow), she tampers with her basic blueprint and comes up with something exceptional. Wrecking Ball is one of those. Daniel Lanois's radiant production no longer seems as fresh as it did on albums by U2, Peter Gabriel and Bob Dylan, but here its hum enfolds Harris like an electric blanket. Lanois's usual recruits, including U2 drummer Larry Mullen, Jr, and New Orleans regulars Malcolm Burn, Brian Blade, and Daryl Johnson, lay down a solid base for Harris's weary vocals and Lanois's buzzing guitar. At its core, Wrecking Ball seems almost too finely calculated. Hot producer plus sought-after songwriters plus venerated performer frequently totals on deadly bore. Here, however, all that calculation adds up to something. --Steven Stolder

Customer Reviews

Something Pretty And Nice
If you have listened to Emmylou's 70's albums, you may be disappointed in this album but give it a chance. It is slower and more difficult than the first albums but it has its moments. The songs like "All My Tears" and "Orphan Girl" are great!

Stunning
Wrecking Ball is one of my favourite albums - and I've got a lot. I bought it around 6 months ago and haven't put it away since. Well worth whatever they're asking for it.

Amazon can't deliver this item
After waiting weeks amazon have finally given me a delivery estimate of 6 Months. Nothing like the estimate mentioned on the website. Very poor.