Linda Ronstadt

Linda Ronstadt's voice has never sounded better than it does on Get Closer. It's an uneven
album, to be sure, but its spirit is unassailable. Ronstadt's ringing soprano vibrates with
clarity and authority on the record's best songs, and sometimes she uses her voice like a
daring rock & roller: she yells until it hurts your ears. Her tone has lost its mewling self-pity,
and her phrasing is both sensible and sly. Ronstadt spent time last year testing he... More >

Could be her, could be us, probably's both, but never has Ronstadt sounded more the art singer than on this painfully precise collection. James Taylor, of all people, saves the Ike & Tina cover, and Rod Taylor, of all people, adds one more great ballad to her canon, but I suggest that she git while the gitting's good. (Grade: C+)