Karla Bonoff's second album, 1979's "Restless Nights", wasn't a commercial bomb--it made it as high as #31 on the Billboard album charts--but presumably it didn't sell well enough to satisfy Columbia Records (perhaps Karla herself was considerably underwhelmed as well). It seems quite likely that, with this 1982 follow-up, Karla felt a lot of pressure to hit it big, which may have thrown her off track--this album is a devastating breakaway from the consistent excellence of her previous two albums. The key problem, quite simply, is the songwriting. Karla rarely seems inspired here (which carries over into her vocals)--she sounds like she's under the gun, suffering from writer's block, just sleepwalking through the songwriting until there's enough to fill up an album. She ends up with a whole pile of weak songs, with exhausting (at times grating) cookie-cutter romance lyrics that seem totally fabricated & impersonal--there are occasional ear-catching snatches of melody which are overwhelmed by the overall listlessness, & in general, the tracks are weak & passionless beyond all belief, as if barely a finger was lifted at all to at least try & make the songs get off the ground. For starters, "I Don't Want To Miss You" is a perfect example. You can just sense the song is going to be problematic based on Karla's forced-sounding, extended "ooh" that gets plastered on at the beginning--the song sluggishly drags through a standard I-VI-IV-V doo-wop style chord sequence in the chorus, & it features annoyingly obvious, fill-in-the-blank style lyrics about her not wanting a boy to act sweet to her because she knows the relationship won't work out (for whatever reason), so she just wants to watch him "walkin' away"--ridiculous, lame-brained teenage soap opera lyrics--plus, there's her "emotive", whiny vocals which make the bad lyrics sound even worse--what a lousy track. Additionally, we get "It Just Takes One (To Say Goodbye)", a song where she calls a boy a "fool" because he "walked away" from her, & then there's an ultra-slow tune CALLED "Just Walk Away" where SHE tells a boy to do just that, even though deep down she doesn't really want him to. The album closer "Dream" is another very slow (& very, very boring) track that's lyrically & melodically toothless. "Even If" strongly recalls "Restless Nights", but it's not even close to as good, & feels dishearteningly passionless, like so much of the rest. The slow-paced "rocker" "Gonna Be Mine" (co-written by Kenny Edwards who also produced) is musically rote & tedious (again using a I-VI-IV-V sequence), & has annoyingly in-your-face, "confident" sexual lyrics about Karla coming on to some guy that she wants. Check out the very first line of the song she sings, as well as the WAY she sings it--it seems like a BLATANT attempt at writing another "Personally". Speaking of "Personally"... That's the first track on the album, & it was Karla's biggest hit single, cracking the Billboard top 20 (though this album still managed to have a lower chart peak than the previous one). It's a cover of a 1978 song written by Paul Kelly that was introduced to Karla by Glenn Frey (he'd had it in mind for Bonnie Raitt to do it). It is one damn annoying tune--it starts off with an incredibly grating blast of layered electric guitar & saxophone, & it's got the same sexual "I'm comin' for you" thing going on as "Gonna Be Mine". It would have been one thing if "Personally" had been the album's big "sellout pop tune", & the rest of the album had been completely unlike it & was solid--the presence of the soundalike "Gonna Be Mine" is certainly bad news, but that still leaves the rest of the album, all of which Karla wrote herself, & the fact the her own songwriting ability was seemingly on vacation, this ends up being almost a total washout of an album. Mercifully though, she DOES hit the mark in a big way on a couple of tracks that definitely rank among her best. The first is the slowly-crawling "Please Be the One", an ominous, minor-keyed tune with prominent organ & punctuated by fantastic slide guitar work. The other is the title track, another one of her moving, reflective love ballads, where she hangs on/ extends the last word of the final verse to goosebump-inducing effect. These 2 must-have tracks stick out like a pair of diamonds in the rough to such a great extent, it's ridiculous. Otherwise, she managed to make an album so thoroughly unsatisfying, it's shocking. It seriously sounds like she was TRYING to make the album suck. The 2 gems aside, this album is NOT the REAL Karla, & it is a TERRIBLE place to start if you're new to Karla Bonoff--this album is exclusively for huge Karla fans (like myself). Great artists can indeed make very weak albums, & that's exactly what happened here. Proceed with great caution.

Things have taken on a slight pop edge with Karla Bonoff's followup to Restless Heart, Wild Heart Of The Young. Oh, the instrumental elements that made her first two albums standout examples of the California country-rock sound along with the Eagles and J.D. Souther is present, but there's a lot more moving towards the charts on the part of Karla, albeit minimally. Her voice has gotten richer, to the point that I recognize it as being similar to Laura Branigan, but the quality and potency of her songwriting has deteriorated overall, making it a tired affair.

Her best-charting and only Top 40 single came in 1982 with the lead track "Personally." Yes, writing or talking on the telephone is no substitute for a face-to-face, although if this was sung in today's Internet age, well, maybe e-mailing is the best way, as sometimes, we might be disappointed in someone we meet, as happened to me recently. Anyway, Karla says of the love she wants to share "I can't mail it in/I can't phone it in/I can't send it in/Even by your closest kin/I'm bringing it to you personally." The brass section and sax solo enhance this song, which is something that Glenn Frey might sing later with "True Love." Eagles alumni Don Henley and Timothy B. Schmit contribute backing vocals.

A mournful organ and bluesy guitar feature in the slow Carole King or Stevie Nicks-ish "Please Be The One." She tells a lonely soul to open up to love, that maybe something he never knows may be good for him and to do it before it's too late.

The painful freeze that occurs after love's illusion collapses is key to the mid-paced "I Don't Want To Miss You", where the sound is and her voice is Ronstadt-ish. The Smogtones, which are producer Kenny Edwards, guitarist Andrew Gold and Brock Walsh provide backing vocals.

"Even If" sounds like a country ballad mixed with that 70's electric piano sound, where the drums and guitar pound in time with the words, making it catchy. This is a mournful song of someone who's become jaded with life, feeling numb, that dreams are illusory. There is indeed a sense of despair when she sings: "Even if you took my hand/You couldn't lead me/Even if you touched my heart/I wouldn't cry/Even if you'd understand/It wouldn't free me/Even if you gave me wings/I couldn't fly." A standout cut.

Anytime Karla Bonoff plays piano, it's usually a ballad, as the slight Eagles-ish flavoured "Just Walk Away" is. Her voice really soars in its Ronstadt/Branigan glory. Yet another sad goodbye song, where "the music stopped before the dance could start." David Sanborn has a mournful sax solo in the middle. A real tearjerker, this one, and yet another standout cut.

"Gonna Be Mine" is a mid-paced rocker that's not substantial. The title track is another slow mournful Karla piano ballad, with backing vocals by Kenny Edwards and J. D. Souther. The sound is more substantial than the songwriting here. A similar sound is present on "It Just Takes One" made helpful by Joe Walsh's guitar. This is a sad accusation against the weak man whose best skill is running away. As the chorus goes: "It took two to find the love you buried deep inside/And it took two to promise we would never let it die/Yes, it took two and you know it doesn't seem right/
It just takes one to say goodbye." Not giving up when the going gets rough is the lesson here, yes?

"Dream" is a comforting lullaby ballad, a needed pause in the struggle in a blue world where nothing ever goes right. Closing one's eyes and dreaming is "a reward[] due/for one who is lost in the rain."

More mournful and depressing than the songs is the lack of emotional oomph and lyrical substantiality, and of course the fact that Columbia Records dropped Karla Bonoff after this weak album. It has its moments, but sadly, not enough of them.

It's great, very great. Karla is mervellous. Listen this CD

There's no way to improve on anything Karla does. She really is in a class by herself.

I first heard the cut Wild Heart of the Young on the Wonder Years TV show. It immediately tugged at my heart and as a well spun lyric will, made me reflect on that one love of my youth that I can never recapture. This song captures the true nature of loves found, underappreciated and lost. It's a really nice spin on the age old adage, "you don't know what you've got til its gone". Karla can always bring heart felt emotion to her songs and this CD is no exception. So if you want to listened to some laid back, emotion laden songs that will take you on a roller coaster of life's pains, this is the album for you. I still believe her first album is by far her strongest, but this CD definately has material that would be included on a greatest hits cd (we can only hope they will ever release one).