What’s New by Linda Ronstadt and the Nelson Riddle Orchestra (Vinyl record album review)

Record basics

Album name: What’s New

Group name: Nelson Riddle Orchestra

Artist name: Linda Ronstadt

Year: 1983

Number of discs: one

Label: Asylum Records

Collection: Selman

Distinguishing characteristics:

Scratched into side 1 of LP: ST – EA – 60260 – A – 2 O B 18455 – A2 SLM △ 5094

Scratched into side 2 of LP: ST – EA – 60260 – B – 3 O B 18456 – B3 SLM △ 5094-X

Buy it on Amazon: $74.88

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I’ve never heard of this record before, but it will be the eighth Linda Ronstadt record that I review. The previous seven were:

Don’t Cry Now (1973): 2/5

Different Drum (1974): 5/5

Prisoner In Disguise (1975): 2/5

Simple Dreams (1977): 3/5

Living in the USA (1978): 3/5

Mad Love (1980): 3/5

Get Closer (1982): 3/5

What I expected

This appears to be Linda Ronstadt teaming up with some kind of orchestral group to record pre-rock pop music. I do not expect to like it.

What it was actually like

I really wanted to be able to say at least one good thing about this record, so here it is: as always, Linda Ronstadt’s voice was very nice.

Everything else about this music was abysmal, however. I was not familiar with any of the songs, and there was not a single positive thing about any of them. The orchestral musical backing was terrible.

Music like this was not just why rock and roll was successful when it first appeared in the 1950s, but why rock and roll was necessary: this music was so dreadful and so soporific that homo sapiens might have gone extinct if it had remained popular.

Grade

1/5: horrible enough that I couldn’t make it through