Emmylou Harris - Pieces Of The Sky (1975)

I'm slipping. Partly because work has been busy. Partly because I completed my Led Zeppelin deluxe catalog and have spent weeks pouring over every nook and cranny I can. But mostly because I'm freakin' bored as hell with all this new music. This is becoming too common a theme whenever I'm told, "Seriously, YOU'VE GOT TO HEAR THIS! IT'S AMAZING!!!" and I listen to it and I'm like, "Eh..." or, "Meh...", or even worse, "Feh..." and for like 2 weeks now the next album on my list has been an hour-long country album. Granted Emmylou Harris has a lovely voice. But country music just sucks sooooooo hard.

I was kinda hoping that Pieces Of The Sky being a 70s album would partially outweigh the boring countryness. I shouldn't have gotten my hopes up. The sound is beautiful, crystal-clear and well balanced. Maybe too well, but that's just me being picky. It would be nice for some sonic variety between the songs, yet it's tough to blame a producer for not wanting to do anything to Harris's voice. There is something to be said for mixing it up a bit. I try to pay attention and really do a deep dive on an album like this but for the most part the songs are so similar it just all blends together. And I can usually anticipate what the next song will sound like. For instance, I knew "Before Believing", which is a slow quiet song, would be followed by a boppier dancy tune, which I knew would be followed by a slow, reflective emotional song.

OK, so I'm really just choosing between "slow country song" and "slightly faster country song" and I'm right about half the time. No huge revelation there. I'm just really starting to get pissed that another album I must hear before I die is nothing really special. I suppose it's possible that this beautiful-but-vanilla country music really is the cream of the crop, which would make most of the rest unabashed crap.

The most interesting this Harris does on Pieces Of The Sky is take The Beatles's "For No One" and attempt to make it epically beautiful in the most generic way possible. (Aside: apparently "epically" isn't a word, but I'm not sure what word really fits better.) "For No One" isn't that outstanding considering what The Beatles could really do, but it does have an interesting melody, progression, and instrumentation. As a lesser track on Revolver it's perfectly acceptable lite fair compared to the rest of their catalog at the time. Harris's take dispenses with the original progression for something more standard, slows down the slightly boppy tempo to a complete crawl, and adds strings because that's how you make a song epic and beautiful. Pfft, whatever.

If I sound slightly ornery, it's not Emmylou Harris's fault. Her album was fine for what it was, she did a fabulous job singing, and the album sounded essentially perfect. I just want to be excited about new music again. Is that so much to ask? 2 stars.