Cheap Mad Love (Music) (Linda Ronstadt) Price

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Customer Reviews of Mad Love

An "A" for ambition, a "D" for execution
I don't know of any pop singer in the last 30 years who has been as ambitious, and successfully so, as Linda Ronstadt. Time and again she has ventured out of her comfort zone to tackle an untried musical genre. "Mad Love" was her one and only attempt to infuse some of Pat Benetar's new wave energy into her own music.

What works on this album is that the songs are catchy, Linda's voice is powerful and mysterious and always Linda. What doesn't work is...the same things. Even at its corniest, new wave could be quirky, raw and unconventional. "Mad Love" is nothing more or less than a Linda Ronstadt country-rock-pop album with some fuzzy guitars. She still relies on songwriters like Neil Young and Elvis Costello (okay, he's got New Wave credentials, but she used his songs before), along with some 60's remakes and other less familiar but typically formulaic writers.

It's a little less pop and more rock than most of her previous albums, so longtime fans will probably enjoy it. But it wears thin, contributes nothing to new wave, and ultimately is overshadowed by the better collections that came before and after.

One note: I believe this album is responsible for Linda adding "Heat Wave" back into her live show. Until Mad Love, she maintained that "Heat Wave" took to much energy to pull off appropriately on stage. On the Mad Love tour, I must have decided that she couldn't support that attitude while touring with a new wave album.

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Linda goes new wave
This album was a departure for Linda Ronstadt, whose previous LPs were filled with easy-listening country-pop ballads with occasional upbeat rockers thrown in. With Mad Love, Ronstadt entered the 80s with a new hard-rocking sound. With the release of the first single, "How Do I Make You," Linda Ronstadt surprised many of her fans and critics with the song's driving beat and firey guitar tracks. She also included three Elvis Costello songs, including a haunting version of, "Party Girl." She also included a few cover songs in the traditional Ronstadt style to keep her long-time fans satisfied. The 60s standard "Hurts So Bad" and the Hollies "I Can't Let Go" were the second and third singles respectively. The former went top-ten; the later should have gone top-ten. The best cover song on the album, "Look Out for My Love" was written by her friend, Neil Young. This album proved the versatility of Linda Ronstadt and this versatility became even more evident as she successfully continued to jenre-jump throughout the 80s and 90s.

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Mad like a hatter...
An impersonal "modern" album by Linda Ronstadt who, along with most major artists of the day, was edging toward the then-trendy new wave sound(she'd even given herself a super-short new 'do, years before Demi Moore in "Ghost"). Results are colorful, if not always on the mark. The title track, "I Can't Let Go" and "How Do I Make You" are effortless Ronstadt thumpers, but the unfocused "Talking in the Dark" and the castanette-crazy "Girls Talk" don't do much to showcase Ronstadt's marvelous voice. "Look Out For My Love" sounds even better than Neil Young's original. "Cost of Love", "Hurt So Bad"(a bit strident)and "Party Girl" are also good. Linda is up for the '80's challenge; still, she sounds a little desperate here and there, especially on the unwieldy "Talking in the Dark", coming off like Debbie Harry's monster twin. Try to find the "How Do I Make You" 45 record: it has a beautiful country lament "Rambler Gambler" on the flip-side not available on this CD, the "Mad Love" album or on Linda's spotty box-set.