Lita Ford - Wicked Wonderland
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Free Music Notes for Wicked Wonderland
Free Music Review: it's different from her 80's music and interesting
Hit: 3 Stars
alot of the reviews have been negative and a friend of mine said stay away from
buying it.but i purchased it anyway being a long time lita fan since her second album dancin on the edge back in 1984.lita her self stated she wanted to do a heavier rocking album and it show's.this album is not as bad as people say it is.
sure it is not a 100% lita ford solo album it's more of a co-album with her spouse
jim gillete.her last album lita live with the song nobody's child is the last gasp
of lita circa 1983-1991.So i do not forsee her returning to that type of album any
time soon.but the new direction is not as bad as alot of the reviewers have stated.
you have to give it a chance and an open mind.
Free Music Review: More a Reinvention than a Comeback
Hit: 3 Stars
I am a huge Lita fan from back in the day. I love her old stuff. I have never really been a fan of Nu-metal (so this review may be a bit biased), and to be honest while I can still tell it has that Lita feel to it, I would have preferred her taking a different direction. If she wanted to depart from the past, perhaps a heavier southern edge, a la Clutch & Black Stone Cherry perhaps. I think her voice would fit well with this style. But even though this isn't a home run for me, it is nice to see Lita back and making music.Free Music Review: Great and not so Great
Hit: 3 Stars
I bought this cd because I am a big fan of Lita. The music is smoking, the guitar playing is sick, and I totally dig Jim singing on the album. The only negative I can say is there is way too much about their personal sex life.
Just a little too much information if you know what I mean. Takes the stigma out as a fan .
Free Music Review: BubbleGum
Hit: 3 Stars
I was hoping Lita would sound like she did in the 80's, and play and sing like a real rock band, but this album is bubble gum music. Lots of "extra" noise....maybe to cover up lost talent. I was disappointed.Free Music Review: WICKED?!? More Like A Heavy Metal Janet Jackson Album!!
Hit: 2 Stars
What can I say? WICKED WONDERLAND, Lita Ford's first album of new original material in 14 years, was, without a doubt, 2009's Worst Album of the Year. In fact, it was so bad that I wasn't even going to bother doing a review for it. But then I got to thinking...the reason I do such in-depth reviews on albums I like is because I hate the ones that just say "This is a GREAT album!!! Buy this album!!!"
WHY is it a great album??? So, on the flip side of the coin...why is this a bad album?
Well, it's loud, it's noisy, it has no sense of structure or melody, it's lyrics are infantile and one-note, and, worst of all, it shows no growth whatsoever in either Ford's guitar playing or vocal skills.
Love or hate her work on RCA, those three albums allowed Ford the chance to stretch and grow; her playing became more nuanced and original, while her voice, while never particularly strong, developed into a decent lead vocal.
Sadly, that's all pretty much disappeared on WICKED WONDERLAND...her playing is boring and unoriginal, her vocals shallow and screechy. And the lyrics....oh, God, the lyrics!! A chronicle of her's and husband Jim Gillette's sex life, the disc comes across as nothing more than a heavy metal version of any recent Janet Jackson album....and that's not a good thing! I can see why no label, major or indie, signed on for distribution...marketing this disc is going to be VERY hard!
Kicking things off is the thundering "Crave." This could have been a decent cut, what with it's blistering cuitar and pounding drums, but the lyrics are so sophomoric it's not funny! I mean, c'mon, people...this is a 51 year old woman talking about how great her ass is!
This lunacy continues with "Piece." As the mother of two pre-teen boys, does Ford really want her kids (not to mention their friends!) hearing and reading about how her fan's "privates start to swell" when she plays? Memo to Mama Gillette....usually when you have to talk about how hot you are....you're NOT!!
Case in point...the photo that accompanies track three in the CD booklet, "Patriotic S.O.B." ~ talk about airbrushed and nip/tucked! That said, there's a decent enough energy to the track, but, once again, the lyrics are SO stupid, while the lead vocal verges on painful. NOT good.
Once again, usually when you have to announce that you're something...say, hot...you're usually not ("With my voice I hypnotize/I'm so erotic"). That said, "Scream" has one of the disc's best arrangements, beefy and full-bodied. A decent lead vocal also helps.
"Inside" has a nice push/pull vibe to it. Jim Gillette's steely vocals (usually nothing more than a run of the mill metal growl) nicely compliment his wife's silkier ones, while Ford tosses off a few licks here that actually seem to have some thought behind them. One of the two tracks that prevented this from being a one star review.
Not nearly as strong is the album's insipid title track. Consisting of pretty much every heavy metal cliche, this is like the ignorant country bumpkin cousin to the Runaways' "Dead End Justice"....in other words, it's a HUGE step BACKWARDS for Ford. What may have been cute and kitchy at 17 is pathetic and moronic at 51.
"Do me Big Daddy!" Those are both the lyrics and attitude behind "Indulge." Now, everyone is entitled to whatever kind of relationship they want to have behind closed doors, but as stated elsewhere (and as is made clear by the death of Ms. Jackson's career!), it doesn't always make for the best source material. All in all, a silly, sad little track.
Lyrically "Love" isn't much better, but at least there's a sense of structure to the song that's lacking from most of the rest of the disc. Ford's vocal has a nice edge to it, even being genuinely playful at times (vs. the canned attitude that dominates most of WICKED WONDERLAND). Ultimately, I would call this one a draw.
The cliches also run rampant in "Betrayal", a track that sums up everything that is bad about the disc. With fourteen years off, you would think Ford would have had time to hone her craft/skills, but she's just recycling bad Deep Purple/Black Sabbath/Dio etc. here. There is not one original note in this cut, which is down right awful.
Up next is "Sacred", the disc's only true gem. Full of real emotion (vs. posturing and posing), an honest, heartfelt lead vocal (vs. howling) and smart lyrics ("'Till death do us part ain't long enough/But the Hallmark cards say all that stuff"), this cut proves that there's still hope yet for Ford.
"Truth" grinds out at a breakneck pace that is just unrelenting. This would have been a nice kick to the gut on a more varied album. but with the way things are here, well, it just seems like yet another cut with a thrashing groove, so it sort of gets lost in the mix.
The same thing can be said about "Everything." Yes, there are some nice riffs here, and the piano runs are a cool change, but pretty much everything else about the song is interchangable with every other track on the disc. For someone who is so into variety in the bedroom....well, I just wonder why that doesn't cross over into the studio?!?
The disc officially wraps up with the dreadful "Bed", which just drones on and on and on and.....! Full of inane lyrics, weak vocals and lame instrumentation, this track truly is an embarrassment for Ford, someone who's been doing this now for 35 years.
The initial pressing of 25,000 copies include two bonus tracks, "Garden" and "Push." (Don't worry if you haven't gotten the album yet....my gut instinct tells me this first batch is going to be around for a loooong time!). Of the two, "Garden" is the stronger cut, with sort of a Van Halen vibe to it, but, once again....those lyrics! OUCH!! "Push" just kind of drags on....I can see why this one didn't make the final cut (Well, beyond that initial 25,000!).
So what do I think Lita Ford has to do in order to recover from the MAJOR misstep that is WICKED WONDERLAND? Well, A) she has to get out of the bedroom, and into the real world...she's had an interesting life, and there's a lot going on nowadays. Use that! B)She has to realize that rock can be loud, but that there's a point where "Loud" just becomes "Noise", and, thus, boring. C) She has to work with a MUCH stronger producer. And D) she has to either write with a much stronger co-lyricist or consider some outside material.
As both a musician and a vocalist, Lita Ford was always decent at best. A fourteen year absence is a luxury for anyone, but you have to be sure you're returning with something a heck of a lot stronger than this disc when you're making your comeback, no matter who you are. You're 51 now, Lita....you're not a runaway any more...instead, you're a middle-aged mom who can still rock, but who also needs to do a considerable amount of growing up. Prove to us you're still bad....somewhere other than in the bedroom, that is! (As with all my reviews, I'm giving the disc an extra half a star for including the lyrics, though, in this case, maybe I should be SUBTRACTING that half a star!).