While I accept that this not Emmylou's finest album (and isn't even in her top ten finest albums), I have never understood why so many people seem to despise it. By the standards of most singers, this is a wonderful album. One problem is that Emmylou had already recorded a string of outstanding albums beginning with Pieces of the sky in 1975. Although the eighties (after 1980's Roses in the snow) lacked the overall brilliance of the seventies where Emmylou's music was concerned, there were great moments, notably Cimarron (an outstanding album), Angel band (a gospel album), Bluebird (the solo album before this one) and the first Trio album (the best traditional country album ever recorded by anybody). Another problem for some may be that this is a very mellow album - there are no up-tempo rocking songs here although Emmylou is brilliant at those. Maybe a couple of them would have assuaged the critics.
The album opens with Wheels of fire, an outstanding ballad, which is followed by an excellent cover of Tougher than the rest (Bruce Springsteen). Next is another fine ballad, In this world. The fourth track, Sweet dreams of you (an original song, not a cover of the Patsy Cine classic - Emmylou did that on Elite Hotel) contains some instrumental breaks that seem out of place on an otherwise mellow track. Maybe the producers (Richard Bennett and Allen Reynolds) wanted to make sure nobody would fall asleep.
Next is an excellent mid-tempo song, Rolling and rambling, about the death of Hank Williams, followed by yet another ballad, Better of without you. A brilliant mid-tempo cover of Ricky Nelson's fifties classic, Never be anyone else but you, is about as fast as this album gets. Two ballads, the title track and Red red rose, complete what is, in many ways, an excellent album.
If you enjoy Emmylou's other music and already have the classic albums, you might enjoy this. This may be Emmylou's weakest album (actually, I don't think so) but it's all relative to the very high standards set by Emmylou's other music. If it were possible to give marks out of 100, I would give this a lower rating than most of Emmylou's albums - however, it still easily justifies five stars from me with the rating system employed.