Crystal Visions... The Very Best of Stevie Nicks (Bonus Version)

Editors’ Notes From hippie enchantress to AOR hitmaker to enduring pop icon, Stevie Nicks has gone through a host of permutations since the mid-‘70s. Crystal Visions (2007) is the latest and best attempt to anthologize her 30-plus year recording output. After her fruitful stint with Fleetwood Mac, Nicks matured into an astute rock craftsperson, able to grow beyond her folk/country beginnings and adapt to the trends of the 1980s and ‘90s. Whatever her adjustments in style, her lyric obsessions with magic (“Rhiannon,” ”Sorceress”) and romantic disappointment (“Dreams,” “I Can’t Wait”) have remained constant. And if her voice has lost some of the waif-like delicacy of her early years, it’s gained a deep, throaty luster with time, as her cover of Led Zep’s “Rock And Roll” shows. From her duets with Tom Petty (“Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around”) and Don Henley (“Leather And Lace”) to live symphony-backed versions of “Landslide” and “Edge Of Seventeen,” Crystal Visions gives a sampling of the height and breadth of her music. The absence of original Fleetwood Mac tracks is an obvious weak spot here, but as an overview of Nicks as singer, songwriter and image-shifting celebrity, this collection more than satisfies.