Dixie Chicks, Taking the Long Way (Open Wide/Columbia)
“It turned my whole world around,” sings Natalie Maines in “Not Ready to Make Nice,” the Texas trio’s defiant anthem about the backlash following her anti-Bush jibe in London. “And I kind of like it.” Indeed, what’s not to like, especially when ace producer Rick Rubin enlists an all-star cast, including John Mayer, Bonnie Raitt, Sheryl Crow, the Chili Peppers’ Chad Smith, Keb' Mo’, and Heartbreakers Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench, to help smooth your transition from Red State country to Blue State alt-roots.
Indeed, the only hint of Nashville is in fellow Chicks Martie Maguire’s sawing fiddle and Emily Robison’s plucked banjo, along with Maines’ legendary country performer dad Lloyd’s pedal steel and mandolin. The Dixie Chicks may have paid the ultimate price by alienating their conservative fan base, but what the group may have lost in sheer numbers, they’ve more than made up for in hip credibility by appearing on such unlikely outlets as the cover of Time, 60 Minutes, and even the Howard Stern Show. All of which would mean nothing if the music wasn’t up to the makeover. But, thanks to songwriting collaborators like alt mainstays Dan Wilson of Semisonic and the Jayhawks’ Gary Louris, it surely is.
The Chicks evoke classic Laurel/Topanga folk-rock on “The Long Way Around,” which is as much an homage to Fleetwood Mac as their cover of Stevie Nicks’ “Landslide” on "Home", vintage Tom Petty on “Not Ready to Make Nice,” a thematic cross between “I Won’t Back Down” and “The Waiting,” and their nod to the ethereal harmonies of Ladies of the Canyon Joni Mitchell and Linda Ronstadt on “Everybody Knows,” their wry observations on the isolation of fame.
And while the rollicking, tongue-in-cheek blast at small-town hypocrisy, “Lubbock or Leave It” — which pokes fun at Buddy Holly’s birthplace (“I hear they hate me now/Like they hated you”) — and the gospel-tinged, call-and-response of “I Hope” both touch on the unpleasant aftermath of what they now call “the incident,” the album also broaches such relevant daytime talk show topics as caring for someone with Alzheimer’s Disease (“Silent House”), infertility (“So Hard”), giving up a child for adoption (“Voice Inside My Head”), and renewing the passion in a marriage (“Baby Hold On”). The trip may not have been easy for the Dixie Chicks, but Taking the Long Way more than justifies that circuitous journey.
Red Hot Chili Peppers, Stadium Arcadium (Warner Bros.)
Of all their L.A. post-punk-funk-metal contemporaries, from Guns N’ Roses, Jane’s Addiction, and N.W.A. to Rage Against the Machine and Beck, who would think that the Chili Peppers would be the last ones standing? For a band that had to cover Stevie Wonder (“Higher Ground”) for their first semblance of a song, thanks to very busy producer Rick Rubin, RHCP has mined a melodic streak since '91’s smash “Under the Bridge” through such hits as “Californication” and “Scar Tissue,” which serves them well on this nearly two-hour, 28-track, double-CD opus, even if they’ve been accused of copping riffs from Tom Petty’s “Mary’s Jane’s Last Dance” on the undeniably catchy “Dani California.”
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