#490: Heart Like a Wheel (Linda Ronstadt, 1974)

Maybe I just don't like this genre. After disliking Nick of Time by Bonnie Raitt, I turn to one of Raitt's contemporaries, though Ronstadt made her breakthrough 15 years earlier. There are things to like about this record. For one, Ronstadt is an accomplished singer, more powerful and dramatic than Raitt. but there is something about the production on this kind of 70's soft rock that leaves me cold. It is so precisely produced that it sounds shrinkwrapped, leaving no space for the music to breathe and live. It can also be mighty boring, especially the sleepy ballad which gives the album its name, a song covered in sighing strings and lacking anything resembling a pulse. The album is thankfully saved from complete failure by a few good songs, particularly the opener You're no Good, the rockin' When will I be Loved, originally by the Everly Brothers and her superb version of James Taylor's You can Close your Eyes to close the album. 2/5.