Get Closer

Get Closer

For 1982’s Get Closer, Linda Ronstadt reunited with her longtime producer Peter Asher. Continuing a reinvention of herself as a snappy young woman for the '80s, the album also realigns her with many of the musicians who defined her '70s output. “The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress” and “Easy for You to Say” are two candlelit ballads by Jimmy Webb, one in a long line of master craftsman that Ronstadt attracted. Along with a long list of renowned L.A. session men—including Waddy Wachtel, Andrew Gold, and David Grisman, as well as a rare appearance by Fleetwood Mac’s Lindsey Buckingham on accordion—the program includes a pair of duets with James Taylor and J.D. Souther. Though the music has a scrappy, punk-tinged edge (especially on “Get Closer” and “Tell Him”), it also has moments of feminine exquisiteness. Kate McGarrigle’s “Talk to Me of Mendocino” is a hand-sewn dress within an album of neon pants, while “My Blue Tears” is a tantalizing invitation to another Ronstadt/Dolly Parton/Emmylou Harris album that never came to fruition.

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