Dolly Parton – Better Day
Australia’s so in the grip of Dolly fever at the moment that to speak a word against the country icon seems potentially treasonous. What if word gets back to Dollywood and she decides to cancel her first Australian tour in almost 30 years?
It’s with much trepidation, then, that we report Dolly’s latest record, Better Day, is something of a disappointment after 2008’s outstanding Backwoods Barbie.
It’s not exactly bad — hell, Dolly could never be bad. And there are definite highlights: bluesy opener In The Meantime continues the ‘pull yourself together’ theme of Backwoods Barbie’s high point, Better Get To Livin’. And lead single Together You and I is the sort of saccharine sugar rush that only Dolly can get away with, thanks to a chorus encouraging us to “paint a pretty rainbow brushed with love across the sky”.
But with only five of the album’s 12 songs (all Parton originals, eschewing her weakness for unusual cover versions) being strictly new material, it’s a record that feels somewhat cobbled together: four songs here come from the recent Broadway musical 9 to 5, while a further two are updated versions of songs she and other artists had already recorded.
Now for the good news: early reports show that Parton’s Better Day World Tour — which kicked off in July and reaches us in November — is a mammoth 33-song set with only five tracks plucked from Better Day.
I liked the album a lot and it gets better with listening. The song ‘Get out and Stay out,’ is feisty and sarky and very well sung and written. ‘Missing You,’ with backing by Harris and Krauss is Dolly at her simple and best. ‘Country is as Country Does,’ and ‘ In the Meantime,’ are very dance to numbers. ‘I just might,’ is very poignant. ‘The Sacrifice,’ is pure Dolly in words and sentiment. It is an album that seems to please her fans, in particular fans who like that Country, Blue Grass, Pop mix. Dolly wrote all the songs except one which she co-wrote. I don’t think it was patched together, I thnk simply that she really wanted to give something uplifting and bouncy and when she goes for a theme she goes for it. Some people love ‘together you and I.’ She has such a cross section of fans that it is quite an achievement she manages to reach all.